Broken String’s $15m Series A raise breaks new DNA ground
Broken String Biosciences, a Cambridge-based genomics company developing a next-generation sequencing-based DNA break mapping platform, has closed a $15million Series A investment round.
Break mapping of DNA is crucial for advancing cell and gene therapies. Genome editing technologies such as CRISPR-Cas9 require stringent pre-clinical assessments of off-target editing events.
Broken String’s ability to identify these events quickly and accurately on its INDUCE-seq platform enables researchers to assess the specificity of genome editing tools and evaluate the associated off-target genetic outcomes. In doing so the Wellcome Genome Campus-based company aims to ensure that this new class of therapeutics can be developed safely and delivered to patients.
Broken String was spun out of Cardiff University in 2020. The migration to Cambridge took place in 2021 when the young start-up joined the Illumina Accelerator at Granta Park, near Illumina’s EMEA headquarters.
“The Illumina Accelerator programme runs for six months and is designed to support early-stage genomics companies to develop and attract VC investment,” explains CEO and co-founder Felix Dobbs. “Following completion of our stay at the Accelerator, we set up our head office at the BioData Innovation Centre on the Wellcome Genome Campus.
“As of today we are a team of 14 split across two sites: the head office at Wellcome and a lab facility in the Science Village at Chesterford Research Park.”
The Series A funding was co-led by Illumina Ventures and Mérieux Equity Partners, with contributions from HERAN Partners, and existing investors Tencent and DvH Ventures. As part of the round, Yoann Bonnamour, investment manager at Mérieux Equity Partners, and Arnaud Autret, Illumina Ventures principal, join the company’s board of directors.
The investment will help ensure the goal of “shifting our commercial model to enable rapid scaling and access to the wider gene editing market”. The funding will also support a new office in the US “in the Boston region”.
Measurement of off-target editing events is an important requirement for companies developing gene editing therapeutics: indeed, the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) in the US expects that patients dosed with gene editing reagents must be monitored for adverse outcomes over a period of 10 years following treatment.
“When monitoring potential gene editing off-targets, it’s crucial to understand whether a genetic change has been induced,” explains Felix. “At your target you’re trying to make a particular type of change and you don’t want these editing systems [like CRISPR] to introduce unintended off-target edits to the DNA.”
Broken String’s commercial strategy is two-fold: one is the development of its PaaS – Platform as a service – offering and the delivery of that service to pharma companies (some of whom are already clients). However, a longer-term vision, says Felix, is “how to take this new class of therapies and design them in a data-driven way” – and that could greatly expand the palette available to pharma companies developing new gene editing treatments.
Arnaud Autret, principal at Illumina Ventures, said: “The clinical progression of cell and gene therapies is held back by off-target safety concerns – we recognise the power of Broken String Biosciences’ technology to drive advances in safer genome editing, genome biology and genetic toxicology, and optimise drug development programmes. The platform has the potential to become the gold-standard solution for measuring off-target gene editing.”
