Graphite Bio fleshes out $45m series A

Graphite Bio, a US-based gene editing spinout of Stanford University, launched yesterday with $45m of series A funding co-led by Versant Ventures and Samsara BioCapital.
The spinout is working on gene therapies based on a DNA editing technology intended to repair, write and replace strands of the nucleic acid more precisely than existing approaches.
Graphite’s first drug candidate, a treatment for the inherited blood disorder sickle anaemia, is due to enter the clinic in early 2021.
The spinout’s founding team includes Matthew Porteus, professor of paediatrics and stem cell transplantation at Stanford University and associate director of the institution’s Center for Definitive and Curative Medicine.
Porteus was helped by Maria Grazia Roncarolo, a professor in paediatrics, stem cell and regenerative medicine who also supervises Stanford’s Center for Definitive and Curative Medicine as director and Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine as co-director.
Abe Bassan, vice-president at Samsara BioCapital, and Carlo Rizzuto, partner at Versant, have both joined the board of directors following the series A round.
Jerel Davis, the managing director of Versant who also sits on Graphite Bio’s board of directors, said: “Achieving high-efficiency targeted gene integration has been a critical objective of gene editing for more than 15 years, but only now is this technologically possible.
“As the founding investor of Crispr Therapeutics, Versant has seen first-hand the rapid evolution of the gene-editing field. Our collaboration with Matt Porteus on Crispr Therapeutics was highly productive.
Porteus added: “It is gratifying to see our work on new gene-editing approaches being translated into novel therapies.
“I am very excited to be working with Versant again on a startup and I look forward to collaborating with Samsara and the Graphite Bio team to bring a new generation of genetic treatments to patients.”