Broken String Biosciences closes a USD 15 million Series A financing round

Broken String Biosciences receives 15 million US dollars to further develop its INDUCE-seq technology, which makes genome editing safer. Investors such as Illumina Ventures and Mérieux Equity Partners support the company.

Cambridge - Broken String Biosciences ("Broken String"), a genomics company developing a technology platform to make the development of cell and gene therapies safer, today announced that it has closed a $15 million Series A funding round. The round was co-led by Illumina Ventures and Mérieux Equity Partners and received contributions from HERAN Partners and existing investors Tencent and Dieter von Holtzbrinck Ventures (DvH Ventures). As part of the round, Yoann Bonnamour of Mérieux Equity Partners and Arnaud Autret of Illumina Ventures will join the company's board.

Clinical progress of cell and gene therapies is hampered by safety concerns regarding off-target effects - we recognize the power of Broken String Biosciences' technology to drive advances in safe genome editing, genomics and genetic toxicology and to optimize the development of drug programs.

Arnaud Autret, PhD, Principal at Illumina Ventures

The Series A funding will be used to develop Broken String's next-generation sequencing (NGS)-based DNA breakage mapping technology, INDUCE-seq™, into a scalable "platform as a service" (PaaS) solution and expand its capabilities beyond gene editing. This expands the commercialization strategy and drives commercial traction. The investment also supports the company's continued growth, including recruitment for the UK team at the Wellcome Genome Campus in Cambridge and the establishment of an office in the US.

The Broken String Biosciences team has the technical expertise and resources, coupled with its strong connection to a world-leading genomics research institute, to drive this platform forward and transform the way gene editing programs are designed and developed.

Yoann Bonnamour, Investment Manager at Mérieux Equity Partners

Advances in cell and gene therapies based on genome editing technologies such as CRISPR-Cas9 require rigorous preclinical assessments of off-target editing. INDUCE-seq enables researchers to assess the specificity of genome editing tools and investigate the associated off-target genetic outcomes. The platform technology addresses the limitations of existing measurement approaches for off-target gene editing and utilizes a novel polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-free approach to directly measure and quantify DNA double-strand breaks using NGS (1). It provides data-driven, actionable insights at discovery, preclinical and clinical development stages to identify novel therapeutic targets in the genome and advance gene editing programs.

Broken String Biosciences' INDUCE-seq technology platform is a breakthrough innovation for the characterization of off-target genomic breaks.

Raf Roelands, Investment Director at HERAN Partners

Felix Dobbs, PhD, Chief Executive Officer of Broken String Biosciences, said: "Our vision is a future where cell and gene therapies are safer, more efficient and more affordable for patients. Our INDUCE-seq platform, working at the intersection of biology, bioinformatics and data science, provides an unbiased, end-to-end solution that accelerates the measurement and assessment of off-target gene editing during therapy development. This provides the necessary information to advance therapeutic programs based on gene editing and minimize potential risks that may lead to subsequent clinical failures. By developing a deployable PaaS solution, we have the opportunity to provide this much-needed solution to the cell and gene therapy community and achieve rapid market growth." He continued: "The support Broken String has received from leading life sciences and genomics investors demonstrates the potential of our technology and its ability to deliver on the therapeutic promise of gene editing."