ATP Founds New Center for CRISPR Target Discovery in Collaboration with Innovative Genomics Institute (IGI) and Jennifer Doudna
New functional genomics initiative to accelerate therapeutic discovery and translation using CRISPR
ATP has partnered with Nobel Laureate Jennifer Doudna and her team at the Innovative Genomics Institute (IGI), a partnership between the University of California Berkeley (UC Berkeley) and the University of California San Francisco (UCSF), to create the Center for CRISPR Target Discovery (CCTD), a state-of-the-art functional genomics laboratory that will deploy CRISPR-based technologies to accelerate the validation of drug targets and their translation into novel therapeutics.
CCTD will operate in dedicated lab space at the IGI building at UC Berkeley and/or in the laboratories of the principal investigators whose project proposals are accepted for funding. The first Request for Application period is now open, and scientists affiliated with UC Berkeley or UCSF are invited to submit research project proposals to CCTD by November 30, 2021. Applications should focus on disease-related genetic targets and describe how functional genomics approaches in mammalian cells and ex vivo systems can lead to identification or validation of drug targets to treat or prevent human disease, or elucidate the exploration of broader functional genomics-based platforms with therapeutic discovery potential.
Applicants should have the intent to found a company with ATP, or to collaborate with ATP in their efforts to found a new commercial entity to develop these discoveries, based upon project outcomes; an Investment Committee comprised of ATP and IGI team members will select projects eligible for new company formation.
More information: The Center for CRISPR Target Discovery