Editas Medicine Presents Data on New SLEEK Gene Editing Technology at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory’s Genome Engineering: CRISPR Frontiers Meeting
SLEEK enables high efficiency, multi-transgene knock-in of induced Pluripotent Stem Cells (iPSCs), T cells, and Natural Killer (NK) cells
Data support SLEEK as an optimized approach to develop next generation cell therapy medicines
CAMBRIDGE, Mass.,
Despite major progress in achieving gene disruption, efficient knock-in of transgenes continues to be a significant challenge for the gene editing field. To solve this challenge, SLEEK was developed enabling high knock-in efficiencies with different transgenes while also ensuring robust, transgene expression.
New preclinical data demonstrated that SLEEK results in the knock-in of multiple clinically relevant transgenes through a proprietary process that selects for cells containing the knock-in cargo. In addition, high percentage knock-in efficiencies were enabled by Editas Medicine’s proprietary engineered AsCas12a nuclease. More than 90 percent knock-in efficiencies were observed in various clinically relevant target cells, including iPSCs, T cells, and NK cells. Additionally, SLEEK may be used to fine-tune the expression levels of transgene cargos, an important attribute of next-generation cell therapy medicines.
“We find the new gene editing SLEEK technology to have immense potential, as it enables nearly 100 percent knock-in of functional transgene cargos at specific locations in the genome, which we believe to be the highest in the gene editing field across multiple cell types. We believe that this novel technology has broad applications and may result in substantially improved gene edited cell medicines, including for novel CAR-T and CAR-NK cell therapies,” said
In addition to the SLEEK oral presentation, the Company also presented a poster on its CALITAS algorithm and software. CALITAS is a new, state-of-the-art, CRISPR-Cas tuned, DNA aligner, and is useful for the identification of potential off-target sites in silico.
Full details of the
About Editas Medicine
As a leading genome editing company,
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements and information within the meaning of The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The words ‘‘anticipate,’’ ‘‘believe,’’ ‘‘continue,’’ ‘‘could,’’ ‘‘estimate,’’ ‘‘expect,’’ ‘‘intend,’’ ‘‘may,’’ ‘‘plan,’’ ‘‘potential,’’ ‘‘predict,’’ ‘‘project,’’ ‘‘target,’’ ‘‘should,’’ ‘‘would,’’ and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements, although not all forward-looking statements contain these identifying words. The Company may not actually achieve the plans, intentions, or expectations disclosed in these forward-looking statements, and you should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. Actual results or events could differ materially from the plans, intentions and expectations disclosed in these forward-looking statements as a result of various factors, including: uncertainties inherent in the initiation and completion of pre-clinical studies and clinical trials and clinical development of the Company’s product candidates; availability and timing of results from pre-clinical studies and clinical trials; whether interim results from a clinical trial will be predictive of the final results of the trial or the results of future trials; expectations for regulatory approvals to conduct trials or to market products and availability of funding sufficient for the Company’s foreseeable and unforeseeable operating expenses and capital expenditure requirements. These and other risks are described in greater detail under the caption “Risk Factors” included in the Company’s most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K, which is on file with the
Contacts: MediaCristi Barnett (617) 401-0113 cristi.barnett@editasmed.com InvestorsRon Moldaver (617) 401-9052 ir@editasmed.com
Source: Editas Medicine, Inc.