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AZoSensors speaks with Tzu-Chieh (Zijay) Tang, a Postdoctoral Associate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Zijay is one of the authors of a paper documenting the development of what the team terms a deployable physical containment strategy (DEPCOS).
SG-based Engine Biosciences raises $43m Series A led by Polaris Partners
Jeffrey Lu, Co-Founder and CEO, Engine Biosciences.
May 26, 2021
Singapore and Silicon Valley-based biotech firm Engine Biosciences on Wednesday announced it has raised $43 million (S$57 million) in a Series A round led by US-based healthcare and technology investor Polaris Partners.
The round was joined by private equity firm Invus and an undisclosed institutional investor based in Singapore, the firm said in a statement.
Existing investors that participated in the financing include 6 Dimensions Capital, WuXi AppTec, DHVC, EDBI, Baidu Ventures, Vectr Ventures, Goodman Capital, WI Harper, and Nest.Bio.
Engine Biosciences was co-founded in 2015 by Massachusetts Institute of Technology professors Timothy Lu and James J Collins, University of California San Diego associate professor Prashant Mali, Mayo Clinic associate professor Hu Li, and entrepreneur Jeffrey Lu.
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While the CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing system has become the poster child for innovation in synthetic biology, it has some major limitations. CRISPR-Cas9 can be programmed to find and cut specific pieces of DNA, but editing the DNA to create desired mutations requires tricking the cell into using a new piece of DNA to repair the break. This bait-and-switch can be complicated to orchestrate, and can even be toxic to cells because Cas9 often cuts unintended, off-target sites as well.
Alternative gene editing techniques called recombineering instead perform this bait-and-switch by introducing an alternate piece of DNA while a cell is replicating its genome, efficiently creating genetic mutations without breaking DNA. These methods are simple enough that they can be used in many cells at once to create complex pools of mutations for researchers to study. Figuring out what the effects of those mutations are, however, requires that each mutant be isolated, sequenced, and characteriz
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By sealing bacteria in tough yet porous, outer casings, environmental scientists could use these organisms as safe and effective detectors of environmental contaminants like heavy metals.
Developing a strain of engineered bacteria that can effectively be used as a sensor to detect contaminants in environments has been a hot scientific topic for years. Bacteria created this way could help researchers in the vital task of tracking changes in pollution levels over wide geographical areas.
Yet, whilst genetically modified microorganisms (GMMs) are great for a wide range of essential applications, including environmental sensing, containing them and preventing them from growing in the environment has been a major stumbling block to their wider use.