CRISPR Therapeutics teams up with Massachusetts hospital in cancer treatment drive

Gene-editing company CRISPR Therapeutics has partnered with the cancer centre at Massachusetts General Hospital to develop T cell therapies for treating the disease.

The research collaboration, which will use the CRISPR/Cas9 gene-editing technology, will run for two years. In an announcement yesterday, August 22, CRISPR Therapeutics said it hoped the partnership would address unmet needs in hematologic and solid tumours.

Specific terms of the collaboration and licensing deal were not disclosed.

Jon Terrett, head of immuno-oncology research and translation at CRISPR Therapeutics, said it is becoming clear that CRISPR/Cas9 can play a “major role in enabling the next generation of T cell therapies in oncology”.

He added: “We hope to accelerate our progress toward making these therapies a reality for patients suffering from cancer.”

The work will be led by Marcela Maus, director of the cellular immunotherapy programme at the hospital.

Maus, who is also an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School, said CRISPR/Cas9 could help treat more patients with a more diverse set of tumour types.

“I’m glad to see the commitment CRISPR Therapeutics is making to this area and am excited to collaborate with them,” he added.

The collaboration is CRISPR Therapeutics’ latest deal in the immune-oncology sphere.

In July, the company entered a partnership with Neon Therapeutics which also centred on T cell therapies, while in 2015 it partnered with Vertex Pharmaceuticals to develop new treatments for genetic causes of human diseases.

Last month LSIPR reported that a CRISPR/Cas9 patent case between the University of California, Berkeley and the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard had been reignited.