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Caribou Biosciences Presents Data on Mechanism Underlying Superior Specificity of Caribou’s chRDNA Genome-Editing Technology in Primary Human T cells
-- Data presented at the 25th Annual Meeting of the American Society for Gene and Cell Therapy (ASGCT) -- BERKELEY, Calif., May 16, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) --
About this update from Caribou Biosciences, Inc.
[{"type":"text","content":"-- Data presented at the 25th Annual Meeting of the American Society for Gene and Cell Therapy (ASGCT) --\nBERKELEY, Calif., May 16, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Caribou Biosciences, Inc. (Nasdaq: CRBU), a leading clinical-stage CRISPR genome-editing biopharmaceutical company, today announced the presentation of studies in primary human T cells highlighting the mechanism underlying the superior specificity of the company’s CRISPR hybrid RNA-DNA (chRDNA) guides for genome editing. “Our chRDNA guides provide a robust and reproducible approach for maximizing the specificity of CRISPR genome editing, which is key to improving the persistence and potential efficacy of our allogeneic cell therapies,” said Steve Kanner, Ph.D., Caribou’s chief scientific officer. “Through simple iterative engineering of DNA positions in our chRDNA guides, we optimize the activity and specificity of editing at different sites in the genome.” In studies with primary human T cells, optimized chRDNA guides were rapidly generated to provide higher specificity editing compared to either all-RNA guides or when employing an engineered high fidelity Cas9 variant. These high specificity chRDNA guides can be used with either the Cas9 protein or the Cas12a protein. The presentation highlights the underlying mechanism of this enhanced specificity by comparing the structure of Cas9 nuclease with all RNA guides compared with chRDNA guides. The data show differences between the structural conformation of the complex when targeting the intended specific site in the chromosome versus unintended “off-target” sites, providing an explanation for the improved specificity. Together, these data demonstrate that chRDNA guides enable highly efficient and precise genome editing, emphasizing their potential superiority for use in therapeutic applications. Together, these data demonstrate that chRDNA guides enable highly efficient and precise genome editing, emphasizing their potential superiority for use in therapeutic applications. The data are being presented virtually today at the 25th Annual Meeting of the American Society for Gene and Cell Therapy (ASGCT) which is being held May 16-19, 2022 in Washington, D.C. The presentation, titled “Conformational Control of Cas Endonucleases by CRISPR Hybrid RNA-DNA Guides Mitigates Off-Target Activity in T Cells” is available on the Presenta...