SF startup unleashes new feat in genetic engineering
Startup of the week
WHO THEY ARE >> Ravata Solutions
WHAT THEY DO >> Genetic engineering of embryos
WHY IT’S COOL >> Ravata created technology that makes the process of genetically modifying embryos more efficient and effective, potentially bringing the world one step closer to erasing the gene mutations that cause devastating diseases. The goal is to one day cure embryos of the defects that cause maladies such as sickle cell, cystic fibrosis and Huntington’s disease. But for now, Ravata is focusing on genetically altered mice.
Researchers frequently test new medicines on mice before they test them on humans, so Ravata engineers mice with the characteristics scientists need to study. Researchers testing a new drug for Alzheimer’s, for example, would need mice engineered to have a humanized form of
Alzheimer’s.
For decades, lab technicians have performed this task by hand — removing embryos from a mouse, placing them under a microscope and injecting them with a genetic modifier (today, CRISPR is used). That process was effective between 8 and 10 percent of the time, and it could take months, said Ravata co-founder and CEO Arshia Firouzi. Instead, his team created a device that uses pulses of electricity to open the cells and let CRISPR in — a technique known as electroporation.
Ravata’s method is more than 10 times as efficient as the old micro-injections, Firouzi said, which means new drugs can come to market sooner.
WHERE THEY STAND >> Ravata, which graduated from the San Francisco-based IndieBio startup accelerator in February, already is working with the UC Davis Mouse Biology Program, and has plans to partner with UCSF and French genetics company genOway in early 2018. The next step? Ravata plans to expand from mice to flies.
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