[vc_row el_class=”breadcrumbs”][vc_column][vc_column_text][\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_section el_class=”start-ups”][vc_row][vc_column width=”1\/2″][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n
Element Genomics, a biotech startup founded by\u00a0Charles Gersbach<\/a>,\u00a0Tim Reddy<\/a>,\u00a0Kris Wood<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Gregory Crawford<\/a>, was recently acquired by\u00a0UCB<\/a>, a global pharmaceuticals company with a focus on neurology and immunology. Gersbach, the Rooney Family Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Duke University, and his collaborators founded the company in 2015 after developing novel technology to\u00a0characterize the non-coding genome<\/a>, opening up new classes of drug targets for common diseases.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”1\/2″][vc_single_image image=”422″ img_size=”full”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row css=”.vc_custom_1535394535521{padding-top: 15px !important;}”][vc_column][vc_column_text]The basis for the Element Genomics platform is the comprehensive mapping of gene function and regulation. This includes technology developed at Duke using the CRISPR\/Cas9 platform, a genetic editing technique that allows researchers to make changes to targeted sequences of DNA. Typically, researchers will use the platform to make specific, permanent edits to a genome by cutting the DNA. But rather than permanently change the DNA sequence, Element Genomics\u2019 technology alters how a portion of the DNA is regulated, allowing them to study how genes and pathways of interest interact by turning the targeted sections of the genome on or off.[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]\u201cWe were using these tools to characterize the non-coding genome, which includes the 98 percent of the human genome. We don\u2019t really understand how most of it works, but it is clear that it plays a large role in drug response and disease susceptibility,\u201d said Gersbach. \u201cWe were developing tools for perturbing that portion of the genome, and that opened up a whole new class of drug targets for common diseases. We quickly realized the technology was something that could go beyond our academic lab.\u201d<\/p>\n In August of 2015, Gersbach and his colleagues approached Barry Myers in the Duke-Coulter Translational Partnership, which had supported Gersbach\u2019s research at Duke, for help to form a start-up. The team received further support from\u00a0John Oxaal<\/a>, who was then working as the first Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Duke BME. Oxaal, an alumnus of Duke Engineering and a serial entrepreneur himself, worked with the team to finalize licenses and find space in an incubator in Durham, and currently serves as CEO of the company.<\/p>\n