Horizon partners with big pharma company on CRISPR
UK-based Horizon Discovery has entered into a CRISPR collaboration with an unnamed big pharma company.
Announced yesterday, August 28, the partnership will see Horizon and the company work together to develop and apply a CRISPR research tool for target identification and validation.
Horizon will lead the development and application of a “single cell RNAseq-linked pooled CRISPR screening using a key discovery paradigm of the pharma partner”.
The biological insight from the screening platform will “allow researchers to ask far more complex experimental questions”, according to Horizon.
The platform is also expected to speed up the time from discovery to validation by integrating the effect of gene editing with complex phenotypic signature mapping.
Terry Pizzie, CEO of Horizon, said: “Pooled CRISPR/Cas9 knockout screens have rapidly become an important tool in novel drug target identification and validation.”
According to the press release from Horizon, the company’s pooled format screens allow researchers to access highly robust whole-genome level analyses that yield outstanding data quality.
However, while this approach is a powerful research tool, it’s challenging to “adequately multiplex the analysis from these screens to evaluate complex biological phenomena”, said the press release.
It noted that connecting pooled screening to single cell RNAseq will present the opportunity to address the impact of CRISPR-based gene modification on a global transcriptomic level, at single cell resolution, enabling users to address gaps in target identification and validation.
Pizzie added: “The co-development of this tool with a major pharma partner provides a substantive advance to Horizon’s already world-leading screening capabilities, offering our customers cutting-edge solutions not available elsewhere.”
The financial details of the deal haven’t been disclosed.
In December last year, Horizon expanded its licence coverage with ERS Genomics to enable Horizon to use CRISPR in new areas across its products and services. ERS Genomics was launched to provide access to the CRISPR/Cas9 IP held by inventor Emmanuelle Charpentier.
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