Minutia Wins $1.2M Grant from CIRM for “Immune Cloaking of Human Stem Cell-Derived Insulin Producing Cells”

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Our tenant Minutia, with CEO and co-founder Katy Digovich listed as recipient, won a $1,192,586 DISC0 award for “Immune cloaking of human stem cell-derived insulin producing cells for curative cell therapy without immunosuppression.”

CIRM invests $25 million for discovery and preclinical research, Patient Support Program

The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM), one of the world’s largest institutions dedicated to regenerative medicine, has awarded to fund numerous projects across the Agency’s discovery, clinical, and infrastructure programs.

The awards will support 11 projects in the Agency’s Foundation Awards (DISC 0) Program, which supports rigorous studies addressing critical basic knowledge gaps in the biology of stem cells and regenerative medicine approaches and to advance stem cell-based tools.

“CIRM is dedicated to the advancement of early-stage transformative therapies for prevalent health conditions such as heart disease”, said Dr. Abla Creasey, PhD, Vice President of Therapeutics Development at CIRM.

In addition, CIRM awarded $2.5 million to support the establishment of a Patient Support Program (PSP) to enhance patient access to CIRM-funded clinical trials, an important component of CIRM’s mission and Infrastructure Program.

See all awardees

The Search for Useful Proteins: Berkeley Startup Aims To Turn Generative AI Into a Gene-Fixing Tool

AI-powered Profluent Bio released the world's first open-source, AI-generated gene editor, the Berkeley company said Monday, an effort that could help more scientists develop CRISPR medicines to fix a range of diseases. Profluent, a roughly 20-person company launched by former Salesforce researcher Ali Madani and University of Washington assistant professor Alexander Meeske, said its OpenCRISPR-1 gene editor uses a protein, which it developed with large language models, and guide RNA that shuttles a cutting protein where it needs to go.

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Generative A.I. Arrives in the Gene Editing World of CRISPR

Much as ChatGPT learns to generate language by analyzing Wikipedia articles, books and chat logs, Profluent’s technology creates new gene editors after analyzing enormous amounts of biological data, including microscopic mechanisms that scientists already use to edit human DNA.

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‘If You Could Hallucinate a Protein’: Profluent Snags $35M for Generative AI Models

In January 2023, Profluent’s large language model was detailed in a Nature Biotechnology paper, showing that it could create new proteins that functioned like ones found in nature. The upstart was founded by CEO Ali Madani, a former leader of machine learning work at Salesforce Research, and University of Washington School of Medicine assistant professor Alexander Meeske.

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Meet The Disruptors: Anil Narasimha Of Mekonos On The Five Things You Need To Shake Up Your Industry

"Anytime you want to be a disruptor in a space, you have to start by understanding what the status quo is in that space, because sometimes it can be a moving target. Sometimes if you haven’t defined the status quo properly, you can go down a rabbit hole that you don’t necessarily need to go down."

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Minutia Wins $1.2M Grant from CIRM for “Immune Cloaking of Human Stem Cell-Derived Insulin Producing Cells”

CIRM invests $25 million for discovery and preclinical research, Patient Support Program

News Updates

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The Search for Useful Proteins: Berkeley Startup Aims To Turn Generative AI Into a Gene-Fixing Tool

Profluent Successfully Edits Human Genome with OpenCRISPR-1, the World’s First AI-Created and Open-Source Gene Editor

Generative A.I. Arrives in the Gene Editing World of CRISPR

‘If You Could Hallucinate a Protein’: Profluent Snags $35M for Generative AI Models

Meet The Disruptors: Anil Narasimha Of Mekonos On The Five Things You Need To Shake Up Your Industry

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