CRISPR-focused KSQ launches

KSQ Therapeutics has emerged from stealth mode with $76 million in funding from Polaris Partners to use the powerful gene-editing tool CRISPR to crack open a swath of new drug targets. Building on the work of its academic cofounders—David Sabatini and Tim Wang from MIT; William Hahn from Broad Institute; and Jonathan Weissman from the University of California, San Francisco—KSQ has developed a high-throughput method of using CRISPR to probe gene function. The biotech firm, which already has 40 employees, will initially focus on oncology and immunology drugs.