5 Novel Therapies Using Synthetic Biology – Nanalyze
By daniellenierenberg
The 1997 film Gattaca promised a future where humans would be free of disease and babies born on demand with the latest upgrades, including enhanced speed, intelligence, and beauty. Much like a new Tesla Roadster. However, despite the technological predictions offered by Hollywood moviemakers, were still living in a time when synthetic biology is working hard to make a dent in the world. No designer babies in sight. And stem cell technology promised so many radical breakthroughs back in the late 1990s, including growing organs for transplants and regenerating whole body parts, but the challenge of growing whole organs has been shown to be more complex than previously believed, including technologies like 3D bioprinting and xenotransplantation.
Despite the challenges and setbacks, investors believe were living in a different time, with more money pouring into the space over the last few years:
Indeed, the science and technology behind manipulating biological matter are still promising when it comes to health and medicine, especially with the rise of CRISPR gene editing. The idea that we could potentially switch on or off genes that cause disease using a cocktail of enzymes is just fantastical. While inserting CRISPR enzymes into a live human being is a bit challenging, there are regions of the body that are easily accessible, such as the eye. In a landmark clinical trial approved by the FDA and led by Editas Medicine (EDIT) and Allergan, now owned by AbbVie (ABBV), a CRISPR-Cas9 gene therapy was administered directly to patients to remove rare mutations that can cause childhood blindness.
McKinsey is calling this emerging technological renaissance the next Bio Revolution, with advances in biological sciences being accelerated by automation and artificial intelligence. The speed at which scientists and researchers were able to sequence the genome of the Rona virus is a testament to the power of these converging technologies. McKinsey predicts that synthetic biology could have a direct economic impact of $4 trillion per year, nearly half of which will be in the domain of human health.
Lets take a look through five companies that are harnessingthe revolutionary power of synthetic biology to design new therapies and treathuman diseases.
Founded in 2017 and headquartered in Alameda, California, Scribe Therapeutics is a biotechnology startup that is producing therapeutics using custom-engineered CRISPR enzyme technology. The company has raised a whopping $120 million from the likes of Andreessen Horowitz to build out a suite of CRISPR technologies designed to treat genetic diseases. Scribe Therapeutics was co-founded by Dr. Jennifer Doudna, the UC Berkeley biochemist who discovered and developed CRISPR gene-editing technology and won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2020 for her pioneering work.
The team at Scribe Therapeutics has designed its XEditing (XE) technology by evolving the native CRISPR gene-editing enzymes available to us to redesign and engineer them to suit different needs. More specifically, they want to be able to modify or silence the genes of live humans to treat genetic diseases such as Huntingtons, Parkinsons, Sickle Cell Anemia, and Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). Anything your parents unwittingly handed down to you, Scribe Therapeutics is looking to treat it. The research team tests thousands of redesigned enzymes and selects those with greater editing ability, specificity, and stability compared to current enzymes. Scribe Therapeutics is starting with a pipeline of therapeutics to treat neurodegenerative diseases and has its sights set on other, less common genetic conditions down the road.
Canadian biotechnology startup Notch Therapeutics was founded in 2018 and has raised $86 million to develop immune cell therapies against pre-cancer cells. The companys cell therapies are based on induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC), which are pre-differentiated cells with the limited capacity to transform into different mature cell lines. Based on its Engineered Thymic Niche (ETN) platform, the company is developing universally compatible stem cell-derived immune cell therapies.
Normally, human immune cells only recognize othercells found in the same individual and will target cells from other individuals,which appear foreign to the immune system. Thats why donor organs can sometimesbe rejected by the recipients body the immune system sees the organ as a foreignobject. Notch Therapeutics is designing a system where the immune cellsproduced from the stem cells will be universally recognizable by allindividuals, bypassing the need to create immune cells from pluripotent stemcells derived from each recipient. These manufactured immune cells, whichinclude T cells or natural killer cells, can be programmed to target cancercells and eliminate them from the patient.
Founded in 2016, Massachusetts-based bit.bio is a synthetic biology startup thats working on merging the world of coding with biology. The company has secured $42 million after a Series A round that was completed in June 2020. A spinout of Cambridge University, bit.bio is looking to commercialize its proprietary platform, opti-ox, which can reprogram human stem cells to do its bidding cure diseases. Touted as the Cell Coding Company, bit.bio was founded by Dr. Mark Kotter, a neurosurgeon at the University of Cambridge who studied regenerative medicine and stem cell technology.
While the ability to program mammalian stem cells has been around since 1981, the company claims it can consistently reprogram human adult cells into pluripotent stem cells, and then transform them into other mature human cells within days. Currently, stem cell technology produces a statistical mixed bag of mature, differentiated cells, some of which can have potential side effects. opti-ox uses a precise combination of transcription factors to ensure stem cells mature into cardiac, muscle, liver, kidney, or lung cells with high efficiency. The holy grail for the company is to be able to produce every cell in the human body for any cell therapy safely, on-demand, and with purities approaching 100%. And well be here, waiting for that stem cell therapy for erectile dysfunction promised by the medical community.
Founded in 2020, Delonix Bioworks is a Shanghai-based synthetic biology company designing therapeutic solutions against infectious diseases. The startup received $14 million from a Seed round just back in March. The Delonix Bioworks team is focusing its initial efforts on anti-microbial resistant (AMR) infections. The emergence of resistance in some bacteria species against common antimicrobial compounds, so has led to an increasing number of infections that are difficult to treat with conventional strategies. These superbug strains are mostly spread in hospital or clinical settings due to the overuse of antibiotics.
The company is engineering attenuated, live bacteria thatcan act as vaccines against these types of infections. By introducing reprogrammed,but weakened, bacteria to express specific antigens on the surface of theirmembrane that match those of the strains that cause AMR infections into anindividual, the individuals immune system can recognize those antigens andrespond to future infections with greater speed. Its no different from how antiviralvaccines are designed, except most vaccines introduce an attenuated or inactivatedvirus to activate the immune system instead. And for those of you who skipped highschool biology, no, this is not a mind-control scheme orchestrated by biotech companies.
Founded in 2018, Octarine Bio is a Danish synthetic biology company thats building out a pipeline for high-potency cannabinoids and psilocybin derivatives for the pharmaceutical industry. Octarine Bio has brought in $3 million after a Seed round that was also completed in March. Medical studies on psychotropic compounds have been shown to help reduce anxiety, depression, and pain, and may have the potential to serve as novel psychiatric medications. A few companies have recently emerged to commercialize existing psychedelics. Octarine Bio believes it can do better by harnessing the power of synthetic biology to engineer microorganisms to produce these psychotropic compounds with better pharmacokinetic and therapeutic effects.
Normally, natural products are produced by plant and fungal species as an ill-defined mixture. The psychoactive properties of these compounds primarily stem from only a handful of compounds because their natural concentration is much higher than other derivatives in the organic material. For example, tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) is the main psychoactive agent in marijuana while psilocybin is the one found in mushrooms from the Psilocybe and other psilocybin-producing genera. However, these are just a few out of hundreds of potential psychoactive derivatives produced by these species.
Molecular derivatives may be produced at too low of concentration to test and analyze, or the plant or mushroom may have a deactivated metabolic pathway that could lead to a superior compound. By tweaking the molecular structure of the product compounds using both synthetic biology and traditional organic chemistry, the team at Octarine Bio is creating a platform to discover new potential therapeutics that may not have been available before. Magic mushrooms are about to get an upgrade for an extra potent trip.
Much like what was said about software by Marc Andreessen back in 2011, synthetic biology is starting to eat the world. While were a long way away from a dystopian future where babies are engineered with supernatural talents, were already seeing the potential side-effects of using CRISPR on the Chinese twin girls originally to immunize them from HIV, including enhanced cognition and memory. The cure for stupid is possibly lurking in the vaults of this pioneering technology. For now, well wait and see how synthetic biology and CRISPR gene editing shape up as potential therapeutics for real diseases.
Tech investing is extremely risky. Minimize your risk with The Nanalyze Disruptive Tech Portfolio Report to find out which tech stocks you should avoid. Become a Nanalyze Premium member and find out today!
Continued here:
5 Novel Therapies Using Synthetic Biology - Nanalyze
- 001 Cardiac Stem Cell Therapy [Last Updated On: June 24th, 2011] [Originally Added On: June 24th, 2011]
- 002 Wow! UW Research labs [Last Updated On: June 25th, 2011] [Originally Added On: June 25th, 2011]
- 003 cellalign [Last Updated On: June 28th, 2011] [Originally Added On: June 28th, 2011]
- 004 Cardiac Stem Cells in End-Stage Human Failing Hearts: Are they functional? [Last Updated On: August 25th, 2011] [Originally Added On: August 25th, 2011]
- 005 Designer Life: repair brain, heart with stem cells - Future Health keynote speaker [Last Updated On: September 4th, 2011] [Originally Added On: September 4th, 2011]
- 006 Cardiac Stem Cell Therapy at Rostock University [Last Updated On: September 4th, 2011] [Originally Added On: September 4th, 2011]
- 007 Stem Cells: Mending a broken heart? [Last Updated On: September 4th, 2011] [Originally Added On: September 4th, 2011]
- 008 Cardiovascular Derivatives of Embryonic Stem Cells in Cardiac Repair and Drug Discovery [Last Updated On: September 4th, 2011] [Originally Added On: September 4th, 2011]
- 009 Stem Cell Therapy in Cardiac Disease [Last Updated On: September 4th, 2011] [Originally Added On: September 4th, 2011]
- 010 Cardiac Recovery Points to Adult Stem Cells [Last Updated On: September 4th, 2011] [Originally Added On: September 4th, 2011]
- 011 Oral Surgeon utilizes StemSave to preserve stem cells in wisdom teeth to combat cardiac disease [Last Updated On: September 4th, 2011] [Originally Added On: September 4th, 2011]
- 012 Stem Cells and Cardiac Regeneration [Last Updated On: September 4th, 2011] [Originally Added On: September 4th, 2011]
- 013 Dr Victor Dzau on Stem Cells for Cardiac Repair. [Last Updated On: September 4th, 2011] [Originally Added On: September 4th, 2011]
- 014 Cardiomyogenic differentiation of Mesenchymal Stem cells (KUM2/9-15c) [Last Updated On: September 4th, 2011] [Originally Added On: September 4th, 2011]
- 015 Heart Failure Patient After Adult Stem Cell Therapy [Last Updated On: September 5th, 2011] [Originally Added On: September 5th, 2011]
- 016 Stem Cell operation in Cardiac Surgery-Al-Jazeerah [Last Updated On: September 7th, 2011] [Originally Added On: September 7th, 2011]
- 017 Heart Disease Patient Describes His Stem Cell Treatment [Last Updated On: September 9th, 2011] [Originally Added On: September 9th, 2011]
- 018 Cardiovascular Therapies: Spotlight on Stem Cell Research - Douglas Boyd [Last Updated On: September 16th, 2011] [Originally Added On: September 16th, 2011]
- 019 Adult Stem Cell [Last Updated On: September 20th, 2011] [Originally Added On: September 20th, 2011]
- 020 Heart repair using own stem cells after heart attack: Future Health keynote speaker [Last Updated On: September 20th, 2011] [Originally Added On: September 20th, 2011]
- 021 Stem Cell #8 Vas Cath Removal 04/28/11 [Last Updated On: September 20th, 2011] [Originally Added On: September 20th, 2011]
- 022 Adult Stem Cells Used To Rebuild Heart Tissue Video. More at http://www.stemcellfusion.com [Last Updated On: September 20th, 2011] [Originally Added On: September 20th, 2011]
- 023 Davos Question: Stem Cell Answer [Last Updated On: September 22nd, 2011] [Originally Added On: September 22nd, 2011]
- 024 Did you have a Heart Attack and Need to Recover your Cardiac Muscle? [Last Updated On: September 22nd, 2011] [Originally Added On: September 22nd, 2011]
- 025 Cardiac Tissue Can Regenerate [Last Updated On: September 22nd, 2011] [Originally Added On: September 22nd, 2011]
- 026 William F. Testimonial of Treatment Stem Cell [Last Updated On: September 23rd, 2011] [Originally Added On: September 23rd, 2011]
- 027 Stem Cell Heart Surgery must see [Last Updated On: September 24th, 2011] [Originally Added On: September 24th, 2011]
- 028 Valentine's Day Stem Cell Wish: Mending Broken Hearts [Last Updated On: September 24th, 2011] [Originally Added On: September 24th, 2011]
- 029 Advanced Cell Technology OneMedForum 2011 [Last Updated On: September 24th, 2011] [Originally Added On: September 24th, 2011]
- 030 Human 2.0: The Helix of Our Future [Last Updated On: September 24th, 2011] [Originally Added On: September 24th, 2011]
- 031 heart cell generation from human ES and iPS cells (embryonic and induced pluripotent stem cells).flv [Last Updated On: September 24th, 2011] [Originally Added On: September 24th, 2011]
- 032 Stem Cell Therapy and Stem Cell Treatment with Dell [Last Updated On: September 24th, 2011] [Originally Added On: September 24th, 2011]
- 033 UCD Med Student Receives Fulbright Award [Last Updated On: September 24th, 2011] [Originally Added On: September 24th, 2011]
- 034 Cardiomyocytes derived from mouse Embryonic stem cells [Last Updated On: September 25th, 2011] [Originally Added On: September 25th, 2011]
- 035 Immune Control of Stem Cell Mobilization [Last Updated On: September 25th, 2011] [Originally Added On: September 25th, 2011]
- 036 Better Drugs Through Stem Cells [Last Updated On: September 25th, 2011] [Originally Added On: September 25th, 2011]
- 037 stem cell derived cardiomyocytes [Last Updated On: September 25th, 2011] [Originally Added On: September 25th, 2011]
- 038 Stem Cells: Heart cells grown from mouse stem cells [Last Updated On: September 25th, 2011] [Originally Added On: September 25th, 2011]
- 039 Patel Stem Cell Heart Failure [Last Updated On: September 25th, 2011] [Originally Added On: September 25th, 2011]
- 040 Turning Adult Stem Cells into Medicine - Zannos Grekos, MD [Last Updated On: September 25th, 2011] [Originally Added On: September 25th, 2011]
- 041 Kevin's 2 Heart Transplants and Stem Cell Transplant [Last Updated On: September 25th, 2011] [Originally Added On: September 25th, 2011]
- 042 Breakthrough in Stem cell technology [Last Updated On: September 25th, 2011] [Originally Added On: September 25th, 2011]
- 043 Affordable Stem Cell Therapy in Guatemala (2hrs from Miami) [Last Updated On: September 26th, 2011] [Originally Added On: September 26th, 2011]
- 044 Cadiomyogenesis of human mesenchymal stem cells [Last Updated On: September 26th, 2011] [Originally Added On: September 26th, 2011]
- 045 Mark Mercola: Differentiating embryonic stem cells into adult tissues [Last Updated On: September 26th, 2011] [Originally Added On: September 26th, 2011]
- 046 Cardiomyocytic differentiation of endometrial stem cells. [Last Updated On: September 26th, 2011] [Originally Added On: September 26th, 2011]
- 047 Adult Stem Cell vs Embryonic Stem Cell Research Ethics Video [Last Updated On: September 26th, 2011] [Originally Added On: September 26th, 2011]
- 048 Pt. 1--Dr. Ali Denktas--Stem Cells as Markers after Myocardial Infarctions [Last Updated On: September 27th, 2011] [Originally Added On: September 27th, 2011]
- 049 Repairing Damaged Hearts with Stem Cells [Last Updated On: September 29th, 2011] [Originally Added On: September 29th, 2011]
- 050 Mouse GEN cells overexpressing Csx/Nkx2.5 and GATA4 behave like transient amplifying cells [Last Updated On: September 29th, 2011] [Originally Added On: September 29th, 2011]
- 051 20100804_axiogenesis.wmv [Last Updated On: September 29th, 2011] [Originally Added On: September 29th, 2011]
- 052 Beating Cardiomyocytes from E14 Cells [Last Updated On: September 29th, 2011] [Originally Added On: September 29th, 2011]
- 053 Heart cells grown from human embryonic stem cells [Last Updated On: September 29th, 2011] [Originally Added On: September 29th, 2011]
- 054 First US Patient In Stem Cell Transplant [Last Updated On: September 29th, 2011] [Originally Added On: September 29th, 2011]
- 055 Be still my beating stem cell heart [Last Updated On: October 1st, 2011] [Originally Added On: October 1st, 2011]
- 056 Beating Human Heart Cells from Embryonic Stem Cells [Last Updated On: October 1st, 2011] [Originally Added On: October 1st, 2011]
- 057 Spontaneously and rhythmically beating engineered human heart tissue from pluripotent stem cells [Last Updated On: October 3rd, 2011] [Originally Added On: October 3rd, 2011]
- 058 Cardiac Stem Cell Therapy - How it works [Last Updated On: October 3rd, 2011] [Originally Added On: October 3rd, 2011]
- 059 Doctors To Use 'Trained' Stem Cells To Heal Heart [Last Updated On: October 5th, 2011] [Originally Added On: October 5th, 2011]
- 060 Beating Heart Stem Cells [Last Updated On: October 5th, 2011] [Originally Added On: October 5th, 2011]
- 061 AM RADIO, DR. AMIT PATEL AND STEM CELLS SAVED MY LIFE - Video [Last Updated On: October 14th, 2011] [Originally Added On: October 14th, 2011]
- 062 New heart built with stem cells - Video [Last Updated On: October 15th, 2011] [Originally Added On: October 15th, 2011]
- 063 Adult Stem Cells For Heart Disease: Today's Reality - Video [Last Updated On: October 15th, 2011] [Originally Added On: October 15th, 2011]
- 064 H9 beating stem cells - Video [Last Updated On: October 27th, 2011] [Originally Added On: October 27th, 2011]
- 065 Double Blind Trial of Stem Cells for Heart Failure - Video [Last Updated On: October 27th, 2011] [Originally Added On: October 27th, 2011]
- 066 Repairing Damaged Hearts with Stem Cells - Video [Last Updated On: October 27th, 2011] [Originally Added On: October 27th, 2011]
- 067 Cardiac differentiation of hES cells at 20x - Video [Last Updated On: October 27th, 2011] [Originally Added On: October 27th, 2011]
- 068 SPRAY-ON STEM CELLS - Video [Last Updated On: October 28th, 2011] [Originally Added On: October 28th, 2011]
- 069 Stem Cells: A smart use for wisdom teeth - Video [Last Updated On: November 12th, 2011] [Originally Added On: November 12th, 2011]
- 070 VistaGen's Stem Cell Derived Cardiomyocytes - Video [Last Updated On: November 12th, 2011] [Originally Added On: November 12th, 2011]
- 071 Stem Cell Research [Last Updated On: November 12th, 2011] [Originally Added On: November 12th, 2011]
- 072 The Power of Stem Cells - Video [Last Updated On: November 12th, 2011] [Originally Added On: November 12th, 2011]
- 073 Beating iCellĀ® Cardiomyocytes - Video [Last Updated On: November 13th, 2011] [Originally Added On: November 13th, 2011]
- 074 SCIPIO: Cardiac stem cells and postinfarction heart failure - Video [Last Updated On: November 15th, 2011] [Originally Added On: November 15th, 2011]
- 075 Beating Cardiomyocytes in Cell Culture - Video [Last Updated On: November 15th, 2011] [Originally Added On: November 15th, 2011]
- 076 Stem Cells Heal Heart Attack Damage. - Video [Last Updated On: December 7th, 2011] [Originally Added On: December 7th, 2011]
- 077 C2CAM - 2011.11.15 - Dulce Base - Regenerative Medicine - Info - Video [Last Updated On: December 7th, 2011] [Originally Added On: December 7th, 2011]
- 078 Latest Update on Stem Cell Research at UW - Dr. Timothy Kamp - Video [Last Updated On: December 7th, 2011] [Originally Added On: December 7th, 2011]
- 079 Coast To Coast AM: Regenerative Medicine / Dulce Base 11-15-2011 Download Link - Video [Last Updated On: December 7th, 2011] [Originally Added On: December 7th, 2011]
- 080 C2CAM - 2011.11.15 - Dulce Base - Regenerative Medicine - Video [Last Updated On: December 7th, 2011] [Originally Added On: December 7th, 2011]
