Locus Biosciences, developer of a next-generation CRISPR/Cas platform for precision antimicrobials, has closed $19 million in Series A funding designed to fund the company through filing its first Investigational New Drug (IND), as well as a subsequent first-in-human trial.
A spinout of North Carolina State University (NCSU) founded in 2015, Locus Biosciences designs and creates novel CRISPR RNAs or “smart bombs” designed to kill antibiotic-resistant “superbugs” by irreversibly destroying the bacterial DNA.
Locus says it is the only company that uses CRISPR/Cas3 to kill targeted pathogens, such as Clostridium difficile, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Enterobacteriaceae—rather than with Cas9 as used by Paris-based Eligo Bioscience, which on September 26 said it closed on $20 million in Series A financing from Khosla Ventures and Seventure Partners, including a $2 million award from the Worldwide Innovation Challenge.
As a result, Locus steers clear of the bitter legal battle over who invented Cas9, now the subject of a U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit case appealing a February 15 decision by the Patent Trial and Appeal Board February 15 decision by the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB).
“Other companies are developing CRISPR applications to modify the human genome, but we are concentrating our efforts on removing deadly pathogens from the body,” Paul Garofolo, Locus’ founder and CEO, said in a statement. “As our technology targets antibiotic-resistant infections without risk to human cells, we can rapidly develop new infectious disease and microbiome therapies that avoid the risks posed by broad-spectrum antibiotics and their selection for antibiotic resistance.”
Locus says its platform is built on prokaryotic technology for prokaryotic targets and designed to enable the design and development of powerful antimicrobials that avoid currently known antibiotic resistance mechanisms while leaving nontarget bacteria unharmed.
CRISPR/Cas3 Platform Developer Locus Biosciences Raises $19M in Series A Financing
