CRISPR-based Exonics raises funds

Nine-month-old Exonics Therapeutics has received $40 million in series A funding from the Column Group, a venture capital firm. The Cambridge, Mass.-based biotech is developing CRISPR gene-editing-based therapies to restore the production of a key muscle fiber protein called dystrophin in children with Duchenne muscular dystrophy. The concept has been demonstrated in mice and isolated human cells. Exonics licenses its CRISPR technology from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, bucking the trend to license CRISPR from either the University of California, Berkeley, or the Broad Institute of MIT & Harvard.