Arbor Biotechnologies Discovers New CRISPR System Utilizing its Discovery Platform

 Findings Published in the Journal Molecular Cell  

$15 Million Series A Financing to Scale Biodiscovery

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., March 15, 2018 -- Arbor Biotechnologies, an early stage life sciences company, today published its first findings of a new member of the CRISPR-Cas13 enzyme family—Cas13d, arising from Arbor’s discovery platform.   

In its paper published today in the journal Molecular Cell, Arbor reported a new enzyme, Cas13d, that is significantly smaller than other members of the CRISPR-Cas13 family and has exciting implications for applications such as RNA manipulation and highly sensitive diagnostics.  The discovery was made utilizing Arbor’s proprietary platform which enables the high-throughput discovery and identification of enzymes that provide new protein functionalities and catalytic activities. 

Arbor’s discovery platform employs a diverse set of technologies and techniques – including artificial intelligence, genome sequencing, gene synthesis and high-throughput screening – to curate and mine the natural genetic diversity for impactful peptides, proteins, and enzymes. This approach enables systematic and high-throughput discovery of new molecules for improving human health and sustainability.

“Arbor’s revolutionary platform accelerates the rate of discovery and characterization of new biomolecules by orders of magnitude,” said Arbor founder David Scott.

“We are now at the cusp of being able to convert sequence data into a catalog of protein functions. The possibilities are limitless,” added Arbor founder Winston Yan.

Arbor’s discovery platform provides a feedback loop between computational prediction and experimental testing to augment the ability to characterize and harness protein/enzyme functions.  The high-throughput platform enables the company to mine and computationally characterize new proteins and push the boundaries of biodiscovery.

Along with founders Scott and Yan, Arbor was co-founded by Feng Zhang of the Broad Institute and MIT and David Walt of Harvard and the Wyss Institute and co-founder of Illumina and Quanterix.  Arbor closed its $15.6 million Series A financing in June 2017, led by Keith Crandell of ARCH Venture Partners, Annie Hazlehurst of Faridan Ventures, and several private investors.

Keith Crandell, co-founder and Managing Director, ARCH Venture Partners, said, “The stellar scientific team and technological capabilities that Arbor has assembled will undoubtedly lead to transformative discoveries in a wide range of commercial sectors.  ARCH is thrilled to support the company as it pushes the boundaries of computer science and biodiscovery.”

The discovery of CRISPR-Cas13d represents the first significant milestone for Arbor's discovery pipeline and illustrates the benefit of scaling protein characterization. The Company will continue to leverage its discovery platform to identify and optimize proteins to establish novel biotechnologies for improving human health and sustainability. 

“This early discovery is a demonstration of the capabilities of the Arbor team,” said founder David Walt. “We expect this is to be the first of many discoveries to come.”

About Arbor
Arbor Biotechnologies (Arbor) is an early stage life sciences company pushing the boundaries of computational science for biodiscovery.  Based in Cambridge, MA, Arbor was founded to curate genetic biodiversity and discover novel protein functions from nature by integrating proprietary high-throughput platforms with computational biology tools.  Leveraging its innovative discovery platform, Arbor aims to transform the discovery of proteins for improving human health and sustainability.

For more information, visit www.arbor.bio.

Contact: 
Donna von Halle
[email protected]