Moderna announced this week that it would be entering a gene editing deal with Life Edit Therapeutics, an ElevateBio company focused on next-generation gene therapeutics.
The partnership will combine Life Edit’s proprietary gene editing technologies with Moderna’s mRNA platform to advance in vivo gene editing therapies. Life Edit's platform offers a library of base editors and RNA-guided nucleases, which have been shown to offer greater versatility for delivery. Their nuclease collection also features a range of Protospacer Adjacent Motifs (PAMs) which enable base editing at more sites than any singular nuclease could achieve.
Under the agreement, the companies will collaborate on the research and preclinical studies which will be funded by Moderna. Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Life Edit will receive an upfront payment and is eligible to receive other milestone payments for each therapeutic target that Moderna chooses to option.
While it seems that the mRNA king is making moves and riding high — announcing last month that it acquired synthetic biology company OriCiro Genomics for $85 million — this week, Moderna’s stock dipped nearly 7% and reported Q4 earnings fell too.
