Resulting technology, called SafeGuide, will enable faster, more cost-effective development of gene edited therapies like CRISPR
Broken String Biosciences, a leader in advancing gene editing safety, and BioLizard, an expert in scientific data analytics and AI, announced the development of SafeGuide, an AI tool for selecting safer, better guide RNAs (gRNA), the gene editing element that tells tools like CRISPR where to repair DNA. With SafeGuide, developers of next-generation gene-edited therapies will be able to quickly find the ideal gRNA with less reliance on time-consuming and expensive wet lab testing, helping to replace current trial-and-error approaches that often take one to two years and result in drug costs of $4 million and more per patient.
The project benefits from a $935,000 grant through the highly competitive Eurostars-3 program. Eurostars is part of the European Partnership on Innovative SMEs, a program co-funded by 37 participating countries and the EU’s Horizon Europe program, designed to drive transnational innovation collaborations. As a strategic partner, Broken String and BioLizard worked closely with Moore Grants & Incentives (MGI) to help shape the project in line with their ambitions, contributing not only to the funding success but also to the content and vision that made this proposal stand out.
The development of SafeGuide combines the strengths of the two companies: Broken String will contribute data and expertise from its INDUCE-seq platform. INDUCE-seq can pinpoint where on- and off-target edits occur both naturally and through gene editing methods like CRISPR with high sensitivity, offering crucial insights to train SafeGuide’s AI models to distinguish safe versus high-risk gRNA designs. BioLizard will develop predictive algorithms that integrate Broken String’s genomic break data with other sequence and structural features to recommend gRNAs with high on-target efficacy and low off-target risk.
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Felix Dobbs, CEO at Broken String Biosciences added: “This collaboration with BioLizard will set a new standard for safety in genome editing. By using AI to predict and distinguish natural and unnatural DNA break patterns, human intervention is significantly reduced, while safety increases.”
INDUCE-seq is already in widespread use by drug developers to both confirm the on-target edits that drive efficacy and identify off-target edits that can become safety issues. In addition to being available as a lab-based service, Broken String recently announced the availability of its Catalyst Early Access Program which makes INDUCE-seq available as on-demand service for select gene therapy developers to detect on- and off-target edits at high resolution, in days, in their own labs.
“We are bringing together our bioinformatics and AI expertise with Broken String’s unique breakome identification capability to create SafeGuide,” said Liesbeth Ceelen, CEO at BioLizard. “SafeGuide tool will significantly reduce the need for extensive off-target screening, ultimately accelerating gene editing development and reducing R&D costs.”
Source: Businesswire
