Acrigen Biosciences, Inc.

Acrigen Biosciences, Inc. is a for-profit biotechnology company developing gene editing technologies for therapeutic applications. Through federal grants, Acrigen Biosciences provides research and development of gene therapy and gene editing systems utilizing CRISPR-Cas technology.

Acrigen has been awarded over $2.5 million in federal grants from the National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, and National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences to support both prime and sub awards. These awards funded the development of gene editing approaches to treat genetic diseases like spinal muscular atrophy, supported basic research into enhancing homology-directed DNA repair, and advanced fetal gene therapy by creating safe in utero gene editing systems. Specific projects include engineering CRISPR gene editors, designing CRISPR guides and vectors, validating editing in patient cell lines and mouse models of disease, developing anti-CRISPR inhibitor proteins to control editing activity and reduce off-target effects, and applying these editors in vivo via adeno-associated virus gene therapy vectors. As a sub awardee, Acrigen received a commercialization grant to protect intellectual property, develop corporate strategy, build partnerships in the gene editing space, and support technology translation.