NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – Gene-editing technology company Inscripta announced today that its has closed a $55.5 million Series C funding round.
The round was led by Mérieux Développement and Paladin Capital Group, and included existing Inscripta investors Venrock, Foresite, MLS Capital, and NanoDimension.
In December, Inscripta released a new CRISPR enzyme it has developed called MAD7 free of charge to the research community. The enzyme is part of the so-called Madagascar family of novel RNA-guided nucleases that Inscripta is developing and was initially characterized in Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Escherichia coli. The firm has made it available for all research with no upfront licensing fees, and has said it will not charge any reach-through royalties on products made using this technology. Inscripta will charge single-digit royalties for use of MAD7 for non-R&D purposes such as manufacturing, inclusion of the enzyme in therapeutics, or for resale.
The firm said it will use the new funding to expand its research capabilities — including the continued development of the MADzyme family of CRISPR enzymes — and strengthen its internal team of high-performing research experts. The new funding will also accelerate its development and commercialization of gene-editing tools, including instruments, reagents, and software, Inscripta added.
"Gene editing is one of the most exciting scientific advancements of this young century, but to realize its full potential, researchers need to have better, more scalable tools to forward engineer proteins, pathways and genomes," Inscripta CEO Kevin Ness said in a statement. "The past 20 years of genomic advancements have been in the field of genome reading, but we believe that future advancements in biology will be in the applications of genome writing."