Forge\u2019s technology offers some key advantages over the widely used gene-editing tool, CRISPR.<\/p>\n
Because it is more precisely targeted, it enables more bacterial cells to survive the editing process, and can be used with a much wider range of bacterial strains.<\/p>\n It may also provide a safer way to modify human cells.<\/p>\n Unlike CRISPR, it can detect unwanted DNA mutations resulting from the editing process and filter out the damaged cells.<\/p>\n Dr Craig Woods, co-founder and CEO of Forge Genetics, said: \u201cThe Forge editing tool was designed to overcome the challenges in editing more exotic strains of bacteria and opens up potential for new drugs and other products.<\/p>\n \u201cThe funding will enable us to expand our business more quickly and adapt it for human cells.<\/p>\n \u201cBy offering an alternative to existing gene-editing tools, we also hope to boost uptake of this exciting new technology.\u201d<\/p>\n Forge Genetics was founded by Woods, Professor Nigel Minton and Dr Chris Humphreys and Dr Craig Woods from the University of Nottingham, who were later joined by Dr Lisa Thomas.<\/p>\n It currently uses the tool to carry out contract research and since its launch less than two years ago, has secured over \u00a32.2m worth of business.<\/p>\n The company, which is based at the university, plans to double its 10-strong team within the next two years.<\/p>\n Launched over a decade ago, CRISPR has been widely used in research.<\/p>\n The first application, for the treatment of sickle cell disease, was approved in 2023 but it can cost \u00a31.65m or more per patient.<\/p>\n Hannah Tapsell of Mercia Ventures said: \u201cThe Forge Genetics team have a strong technical reputation and we have been impressed by the rapid commercialisation they have already achieved.<\/p>\n \u201cWhile there is a lot of potential to scale their existing business, there is also an exciting opportunity to expand into other areas and, in particular, to create a new and safer option for editing human genes.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Add-a-heading-5000-x-3000-px-scaled.png\")
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<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A UK company that has developed a novel gene-editing tool has raised \u00a32m to expand its commercial work…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":184741,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[64,63,336,128],"class_list":["post-184740","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-genetics","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-genetics","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184740","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=184740"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184740\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/184741"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=184740"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=184740"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=184740"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}