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IDbyDNA Nabs Additional Funding for Gene Editing Dx, Biosurveillance Tech

NEW YORK – IDbyDNA said on Thursday that MRIGlobal has awarded it funding for a second year to continue participation in a project to provide the military with rapid infectious disease tests for diagnostic and biosurveillance uses.

The Salt Lake City-based firm did not disclose the amount of the funding.

IDbyDNA is collaborating with Mammoth Biosciences, Draper Laboratory, University of California, San Francisco, and Toolbox Medical Innovations in the Detect It with Gene Editing Technologies (DIGET) program, which is led by contract research organization MRIGlobal and was awarded a contract worth up to $36.7 million over four years by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency in January 2021.

A goal of the program is to develop a lab-based, massively multiplexed detection platform that uses CRISPR-based assays to detect genomic sequences and screen clinical and environmental samples for more than 1,000 targets simultaneously.

This second round of funding "will allow further development of capabilities that focus on analyzing more complex data," Neil Gunn, CEO of IDbyDNA, said in a statement. "Our goal is to leverage our expertise in precision metagenomics to produce a durable, next-generation device that is battlefield tested and ready for more robust and improved diagnostic testing [for] infectious disease threats, including emerging pathogens."

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