COMPANIES INVOLVED
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Agenovir's goal is to disrupt and eliminate dormant viral infections, especially human papilloma virus (HPV) with the use of computationally-engineered nucleases. The company plans on using an antiviral CRISPR-Cas9 system and inserting it near the skin surface, just enough to reach the virus that already infected the cells, which causes the HPV-infected cells to die. Since the only objective is to kill the HPV, it is much easier to modify compared to other experiments since it does not require any correction or replacement of genes.
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Mammoth Biosciences/Diagnostics is the first ever company to have used CRISPR to easily detect human diseases. They use this technology (on disposable paper strips) by inserting a "reporter molecule" in the CRISPR-Cas9 that releases a color when cutting the targeted nucleotide sequence. The company's objective is to have a user-friendly technology that can detect any diseases anytime and anywhere. Chief Technology Officer Ashley Tehranchi states that “the most powerful aspect of this technology is that this platform can make any test you need with access to results right away.”
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Inscripta Therapeutics is a biotech company that enhanced CRISPR nucleases/enzymes by improving their PAM recognition sequences, cut efficiencies, reducing their large sizes, and made more specific to certain experiments. These modified enzymes are called "MADzymes," which are available for research purposes .
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eGenesis is using CRISPR technology in order for the idea of animal-to-human organ transplantation become reachable by growing organs that are similar to human ones inside of pigs. The reason why this has not been done before is because pig genomes have procine endogenous retroviruses (PEVS) which are highly infectious in humans, causing the organs to fail whenever xenotransplantations are done. However, eGenesis successfully used CRISPR-Cas9 to eliminate the copies of these viruses.
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Synthetic Genomics is a company that focuses on using microalgae for oil production, due to their large amount of fat, and ability to survive in harsh environmental conditions. Microalgae increase their lipids when deprived from nutrients that they need, such as carbon dioxide and sunlight, as an attempt to receive these elements. Synthetic Genomics is using CRISPR-Cas9 to manipulate the algae into producing more lipids and they reported that there was an increase in oil production by 200%.
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Plantedit is focusing on producing "DNA-free" plant products: modified plants that do have have foreign genetic material from a different plant. The company has already used CRISPR-Cas9 to modify soybeans called SOlive, which now has a high oil content (similar with olive oil) that can be used for cooking in higher temperatures and have a longer shelf life. Additionally, the company is already experimenting with other fruits and plants that could be of use in the future.
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NTrans is a company that is researching in order for CRISPR technology to be used in all cell types. This is because one way to deliver CRISPR into an organism is by using viruses, which can automatically kill the virus an immune response occurs within the host. The company solves these delivery problems by using a method called induced tranduction (iTOP) that causes the cell to take in large fluid-filled vesicles that contain CRISPR-Cas9 and the guide RNAs needed.
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Beam Therapeutics is a company that is improving CRISPR technology in order to make changes in an organism's genome, without the need to cut the DNA or RNA, by just swapping one base for another. The company developed a C-base editor ("BE") that is able to edit C to T ot G to A and also an A-base editore ("ABE") that is able to make A to G and T to C edits at a desired location.