CRISPR
Andreessen Horowitz backs SCiFi Foods as it develops cell-cultivated, plant-based burger
The company is using both plant-based and real cultivated beef cells in its approach to grow meat from animal cells at large-scale and more affordably.
Colossal grabs $60 million Series A for moonshot mammoth project
Colossal, the company known for its mission to resurrect a woolly mammoth (or at least, an elephant with some very mammoth-like traits), is back with $60 million in Series A funding. But despite the f
Phytoform plants $5.7M into climate-resistant crop technology
The success of CRISPR technology in agriculture has been well documented as a way to manipulate plant genomes to make them more pest and climate resistant and grow more consistent products.
How Colossal sold investors on a quest to resurrect a woolly mammoth
There are a growing number of companies interested in CRISPR’s potential to upend medicine. It’s probably safe to say there’s only one company interested in using the gene-editing system to
Breakout ‘CRISPR platform’ company Mammoth Biosciences is officially a unicorn
The CRISPR-based biotech startup Mammoth Biosciences is officially a unicorn, the company says. The billion-dollar valuation comes on the back of a $150 million Series D round led by Redmile Group,
New clinical trial data from Locus Biosciences shows promise in CRISPR-Cas3 technology
Antibiotic resistance is one of the biggest potential threats to global health today. But Locus Biosciences is hoping that their crPhage technology might provide a new solution. Based in North Carolin
Tech’s role in the COVID-19 response: Assist, don’t reinvent
The pandemic has affected just about every business in the world, but tech has also geared up to fight back in its own way, as we found out from speakers at Disrupt 2020. But technology has opted to t
Nobel laureate Jennifer Doudna shares her perspective on COVID-19 and CRISPR
CRISPR co-discoverer Jennifer Doudna was named a Nobel laureate in Chemistry today, sharing the honour with Emmanuelle Charpentier. We had the opportunity to speak to Doudna recently at our TechCrunch
Scribe Therapeutics launches a platform for engineering CRISPR-based therapeutics
A new company called Scribe Therapeutics founded by two former members of CRISPR pioneer Jennifer Doudna’s UC Berkeley genetics lab (alongside Doudna herself) launched on Tuesday, debuting a pla
Daily Crunch: Twitter tightens security ahead of election
Twitter takes preemptive steps to avoid election-related hacks, we check out the new Apple Watches and Facebook launches new business tools. This is your Daily Crunch for September 17, 2020. The big s
Jennifer Doudna sees CRISPR gene-editing tech as a Swiss Army knife for COVID-19 and beyond
Jennifer Doudna, one of the pioneers of the gene-editing technique known as CRISPR, thinks the biotech tool could be an essential one for combating COVID-19 and future pandemics. Due to its capacity t
Students get 60% off passes to Disrupt 2020
Budget-strapped students, this post is for you. We have a limited number of discount passes to Disrupt 2020 for $125 a pop. Buy your student pass now, before one of two things happen. One, we run out
Mission Bio raises $70 million to help scale its tech for improving the development of targeted cancer therapies
California-based startup Mission Bio has raised a new $70 million Series C funding round, led by Novo Growth and including participation from Soleus Capital and existing investors Mayfield, Cota and A
Mammoth Biosciences lands exclusive license to new CRISPR proteins that could boost gene editing precision
CRISPR pioneer Mammoth Biosciences has secured an exclusive license to a new family of CRISPR proteins. Obtained from UC Berkeley, the license covers R&D and commercialization across all potential
Mammoth Biosciences’s CRISPR-based COVID-19 test receives NIH funding through RADx program
CRISPR tech startup Mammoth Biosciences is among the companies that revealed backing from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics (RADx) program on Friday. Mammoth re
Berkeley’s Innovative Genomics Institute is rolling out a spit test for COVID-19 testing
Scientists from the University of California, Berkeley, have begun trials of a new spit test for COVID-19 infections developed by the university’s Innovative Genomics Institute. Since the diseas
Pioneering CRISPR researcher Jennifer Doudna is coming to Disrupt
Jennifer Doudna, a woman whose work has triggered the explosion in innovation in the field of synthetic biology and has given researchers around the world a way to program and reprogram the living wor
Bit Bio’s ‘enter button for the keyboard to the software of life’ nabs the company $41.5 million
Bit Bio, the new startup that pitches itself as the “enter button for the keyboard to the software of life,” only needed three weeks to raise its latest $41.5 million round of funding. Ori
Mammoth Biosciences partners with GSK to develop handheld CRISPR-based COVID-19 test
California-based Mammoth Biosciences has signed a powerful partner for its development of a CRISPR-based test for COVID-19, which would aim to deliver accurate, fast results using a handheld, disposab
With fresh support from its billionaire backers Pivot Bio is ushering in a farming revolution
In the first decade of the twentieth century two German chemists, Fritz Haber and Carl Bosch, invented fertilizer — the nitrogen compound which ushered in modern agriculture and saved the world