Horizon Discovery adds three eminent CRISPR experts to its Scientific Advisory Board

Dr Charpentier is currently serving as head of the Department of Regulation in Infection Biology at the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research in Braunschweig and Hannover Medical School. Dr Charpentier is known worldwide for her work on bacterial immunity and uncovering key functional components of the bacterial CRISPR-Cas9 system. Dr Charpentier was principal co-author on a seminal publication[1] suggesting how the CRISPR-Cas9 system could be adapted from use in bacteria for broad application in mammalian genome editing. Dr Charpentier is also a co-founder of ERS Genomics and CRISPR Therapeutics and was recently awarded the highly prestigious Alexander von Humboldt professorship and Dr Paul Janssen Award.

Dr Charpentier commented: “Horizon is fast becoming recognised as a leader in the field of gene editing, applying CRISPR and other technologies to develop innovative research for understanding the genetic basis of disease and the development of personalised medicines. I am excited to help guide the next stage in the Company’s development, and the application of CRISPR-Cas9 technology to their products and services.”

Dr J Keith Joung has a long history in the development and application of engineered DNA-binding domains and systems for creating customised nucleases for genome editing. Over the past ten years, his lab has pioneered methods for targeted genome editing using engineered zinc finger nucleases (ZFNs), transcription activator-like effector nucleases (TALENs), as well as CRISPR-Cas9. In a recent publication[2], Dr Joung and his co-workers described a novel system that combines CRISPR-Cas9 with a nuclease domain to generate dimeric RNA-guided FokI nucleases (RFNs) with greater specificity than first-generation CRISPR reagents. Dr Joung is the recipient of a NIH Director’s Pioneer Award and also a scientific co-founder of Editas Medicine. Dr Joung currently serves as Associate Chief of Pathology for Research at Massachusetts General Hospital and is an Associate Professor of Pathology at Harvard Medical School.

Dr Joung noted: “Horizon is dedicated, as I have been, to improving the field of genome editing for all forms of research purposes, and I’m very pleased to be able to support and work with the company.”

Dr Feng Zhang, PhD, is currently serving as W M Keck Career Development Professor with joint appointment in Biological Engineering and also Brain and Cognitive Sciences departments at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He is also one of the 11 core members of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard and an Investigator at the McGovern Institute for Brain Research. 

Dr Zhang successfully engineered the CRISPR-Cas9 system for genome editing in mammalian cells as published online January 3, 2013 in Science[3]. Dr Zhang has been extremely active in publishing a range of articles on the optimal use and design of the technology.  More recently Dr. Zhang has published compelling results[4] indicating CRISPR/Cas9-mediated gene editing can be employed in high-throughput genome-wide screens. Dr Zhang is a co-founder of Editas Medicine and is the 2014 recipient of the prestigious NSF Waterman award from the National Science Foundation for his work on the CRISPR-Cas9 system.

Dr Zhang commented: “Horizon is one of the leading commercial innovators in the area of translational genomics and I look forward to helping to direct their growth as they continue to use gene editing to drive research programs in academic and commercial research labs.”

“As our company expands so does our panel of world leading expert scientific advisors, and we’re delighted to be adding three of the world’s foremost experts in gene editing and recognized inventors of the CRISPR system to our SAB,” said Dr Darrin Disley, Chief Executive Officer of Horizon Discovery Group plc. “Horizon is pioneering the application of CRISPR technology for research applications, including combining it with other gene editing techniques such as our proprietary rAAV technology, to provide unparalleled precision. The addition of Drs Charpentier, Joung, and Zhang to the SAB further demonstrates our commitment to being the global leader in genome editing and translational genomics.”


Reference [1] Science, 2012 Aug 17; 337(6096):816-21

Reference [2] Nature Biotech, 2014 [TBD]

Reference [3] Science, 2013 Feb 15; 339(6121):819-23

Reference [4] Science, 2014 Jan 3; 343(6166):84-7

 

About Horizon Discovery

Horizon is a revenue-generating life science company supplying research tools to organizations engaged in genomics research and the development of personalized medicines. Horizon has a diverse and international customer base approaching 1,000 organizations across nearly 50 countries, including major pharmaceutical, biotechnology and diagnostic companies as well as leading academic research centers. The Company supplies its products and services into multiple markets, estimated to total in excess of £29 billion by 2015.

Horizon’s core capabilities are built around its proprietary translational genomics platform, GENESIS™, a high-precision and flexible suite of gene editing tools able to alter almost any endogenous gene sequence of human or mammalian cell-lines. Horizon offers almost 2,200 products, almost all of which are based on the application of GENESIS™ to generate cell lines that accurately model the disease-causing mutations found in genetically based diseases. These ‘patients-in-a-test-tube’ are being used by customers to identify the effect of individual or compound genetic mutations on drug activity, patient responsiveness, and resistance, which may lead to the successful prediction of which patient sub-groups will respond to currently available and future drug treatments. 

In addition, Horizon provides GENASSIST™ CRISPR and rAAV gene editing tools, custom cell line generation services for research and bioproduction applications, quantitative molecular reference standards, contract research and custom screening services, custom shRNA development services and off-the-shelf validated shRNA (through Horizon’s partner Sirion), and haploid cell lines (through Horizon’s partner Haplogen).  These latter partnerships provide Horizon with almost 11,000 further products for our customers.

Horizon is headquartered in Cambridge, UK, and is listed on the London Stock Exchange’s AIM market under the ticker “HZD”.  For further information please visit: www.horizondiscovery.com. 

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