With a distinct take on CRISPR, Carver Biosciences secured seed financing to support the development of RNA-targeting gene therapies aimed at RNA-based respiratory infectious diseases.
With a distinct take on CRISPR technology, Carver Biosciences secured seed financing to support the development of RNA-targeting gene therapies aimed at RNA-based respiratory infectious diseases.
The undisclosed financing will further the company’s development of bacterially derived RNA-directed RNase Cas13 to target respiratory viruses. Funds will support initial proof of concept Cas13 experiments in cells and in models of disease, the company stated.
The Cas13 protein uses a short segment of RNA to guide itself to mRNA, where it cuts and destroys the mRNA in a sequence-specific fashion. The aim of CRISPR/Cas13 is to destroy these respiratory viruses and prevent them from replicating.
The company explained that its gene therapies will act in concert with current vaccination and viral inhibitors to arrest the progression of infection from infections like COVID-19 or respiratory syncytial virus (RSV).
Walter Strapps, company co-founder and CEO, told BioSpace the Cas13-based treatments are designed as an acute treatment of these respiratory viruses when vaccination and other antivirals are not stemming the infection.
Strapps said Cas13 provides the company with a programmable platform that will allow it to treat multiple viral threats that are already issues of concern, as well as those that have yet to become widespread issues.
“We feel we’ve got a technology that is going to provide a therapeutic option for patients who have been infected with a respiratory virus and don’t have other options,” Strapps said.
Carver’s Cas13 products are being designed as an inhaled treatment, so the therapeutic can get straight to the lungs, where the source of infection is located. However, Strapps noted this delivery approach is still in its early stages, and a significant amount of work needs to be conducted before it will be ready to assess in clinical trials.
With the seed funding, Strapps said the company will be able to secure lab space in Boston and begin to scale the team so it can shore up the science and technology.
He noted that being in Boston is something of a double-edged sword. While it’s an expensive city to set up shop, Strapps said it’s also a city ripe with talent. Once that has been done, he said the company will be in line to begin raising money in a Series A that will allow it to advance its technology toward the clinic.
“The seed has allowed us to get our footing,” Strapps said. “This will allow us to get set up and expand.”
Carver was founded last year by Cameron Myhrvold, an assistant professor at Princeton University who has worked on developing Cas13-based technologies for viral host RNAs since 2016, the year the protein was first discovered.
According to company data, Cas13 uses sequence-specific targeting of mRNA in order to “cleave and specifically degrade” the targeted RNA.
Cas13 is one of the many Cas proteins that are part of a bacterial immune system that can be used in mammalian cells. The function of Cas13 is similar to the more commonly-used Cas9, which targets DNA.
“Cas13 opens up a whole new world of possibilities for targeting RNA, much like Cas9 did for targeting DNA,” Myhrvold, chairman of the company’s scientific advisory board, said in a statement. “I’m particularly excited about using Cas13 to treat viral infections, as the vast majority of viruses don’t have FDA-approved therapies or vaccines.”
