Broken String Biosciences Raises $15 Million to Drive Development of Cell and Gene Therapies

Rare Daily Staff

U.K.-based Broken String Biosciences, a genomics company building a technology platform to drive the development of cell and gene therapies that are safer by design, closed a $15 million series A investment round.

Illumina Ventures and Mérieux Equity Partners co-led the financing, with contributions from HERAN Partners, and existing investors Tencent and Dieter von Holtzbrinck Ventures (DvH Ventures). As part of the round, Yoann Bonnamour, Mérieux Equity Partners, and Arnaud Autret, Illumina Ventures, join the company’s board of directors.

Broken String will use the funding to develop its Next Generation Sequencing-based DNA break mapping platform, INDUCE-seq, into a scalable ‘Platform as a Service’ offering and to expand its capabilities beyond gene editing, broadening its go-to-market strategy and driving commercial traction.

The progress of cell and gene therapies based on genome editing technologies, such as CRISPR-Cas9, requires stringent preclinical assessments of off-target editing events. Broken String says INDUCE-seq enables researchers to assess the specificity of genome editing tools and evaluate the associated off-target genetic outcomes. The platform technology addresses the limitations of existing gene editing off-target measurement approaches; leveraging a novel polymerase chain reaction-free approach to directly measure and quantify DNA double-strand breaks using NGS. It provides data-driven, actionable insights across the discovery, pre-clinical and clinical development stages to unlock new therapeutic targets within the genome and to advance gene editing programs.

“Our vision is a future where cell and gene therapies are safer, more efficient, and affordable for patients. Operating at the intersection of biology, bioinformatics, and data science, our INDUCE-seq platform offers an unbiased, end-to-end solution that expedites the measurement and assessment of off-target gene editing during therapeutic development,” said Felix Dobbs, CEO of Broken String Biosciences. “This provides essential information required to progress therapeutic programs that leverage gene editing and mitigate potential risks that can result in later-stage clinical failures.”

Photo: Felix Dobbs, CEO of Broken String Biosciences