Exclusive deal gives the company access to university’s gene-editing technology.

With a focus on developing and commercializing therapeutics to treat infectious diseases through gene editing, Excision BioTherapetics announced that the company is the first to secure an exclusive license to UC Berkeley’s newly discovered CRISPR gene editing technology.

In February 2017, details of the discovery of Berkeley’s new CRISPR-Cas systems derived from uncultivated microbes was published in Nature. According to Excision, the discovery has been “opening the door” for the development of new versions of the genome editing technology ever since.

According to the company, it is the first to secure licenses to further explore this technology as it relates to infectious diseases including HSV, HBV, HTLV-1 and many other similar viruses. Excision said they hope the discoveries they make will open up more ways to find cures and treatments.

Thomas Malcolm, Founder, President and CEO of Excision BioTherapeutics said, "The discoveries made by the Doudna and Banfield laboratories open up so many possibilities. As a result of their incredible work to develop these alternatives in the gene editing space, we can now take our expertise and intellectual property and make significant progress in medical treatment options for some of the world's worst infectious diseases.” By working with additional nucleases to Cas9, said Malcolm, the company is increasing the possibilities for harnessing the technology, he added, “We are looking forward to bringing these to the industry and intend to develop them to the fullest capability."