NEW YORK — Venture capital firm SOSV said on Tuesday that its life sciences startup incubator IndieBio has partnered with Genome Project-write (GP-write) to launch a program to fund early-stage companies pursuing genome engineering.
According to Princeton, New Jersey-based SOSV, the initiative — called the GP-write Startup Team — will select and fund new ventures focused on the technology and science of writing and editing genomes, with the overall goal of improving access to R&D resources for startups in the space and increasing their visibility.
The GP-write Startup Team is soliciting proposals from early-stage genome engineering firms that may be selected for $250,000 in funding and join the next IndieBio cohort, which receives programming, network access, mentorship, and guidance from industrial experts, biotech founders, and patent licensing experts to help them advance to their next round of financing.
Areas of particular interest to the GP-write Startup Team include software tools for gene/genome-scale design, improvements in DNA synthesis, genome editing, and chromosome and organism engineering.
"SOSV's IndieBio and GP-write have a shared vision, to expedite advances in large-scale genome editing and synthesis, and believe the evolution of these technologies will lead to transformational change in personalized therapeutics," IndieBio General Partner Stephen Chambers said in a statement. "Our goal is to support developments in personalized gene and cellular therapies to drive dramatic cost reductions, create solutions for reversing climate change, and produce an entirely new class of engineered materials."
GP-write is a nonprofit that includes hundreds of scientists, affiliated with over 100 institutions and companies in 17 countries, aiming to synthesize entire genomes, including a genome for a human cell line.