Bangalore-based CrisprBits, that uses CRISPR, a gene-editing technology, to develop solutions in the life sciences, raised $250,000 in pre-seed funding from Bohemia, New York-based VJ Group. The funding will be used toward product development, team expansion, and for research and development.
Sunil Arora, co-founder and CEO, CrisprBits said, “The new investment will accelerate our next phase of growth and allow us develop many more high-quality healthcare solutions in diagnostics and gene editing.” The company plans to extend its CRISPR-based diagnostics platform to point-of-care detection of pathogens and antimicrobial resistance genes associated with hospital-acquired infections.
CRISPR is used by bacteria to protect themselves from invading viruses and in the past few years, scientists have harnessed its power to develop therapeutics as well as other biotechnological products in the domains of human, plant and microbial bio-engineering.
Dr. Vijay Chandru, Co-Founder and Chief Scientific Officer, said, “Beyond diagnostics, we will also explore new therapeutic strategies in gene editing for oncology, cardio-vascular applications, and even industrial biotechnology applications.”
Commenting on the investment, Vijay Alreja, Founder and CEO, VJ Group, said, “The potential of CRISPR technology is truly incredible, and we are excited to support CrisprBits harnessing this technology to develop high quality yet affordable and accessible solutions to improve human health. We look forward to working together to commercialize the products that are in the pipeline as well as develop new products. We strongly believe that this collaboration will lead to synergistic outcomes.“
