Editas Medicine and IDT Announce Publication in Nature Communications of Research Data Supporting the Use of Optimized AsCas12a Nuclease Variant, Alt-R A.s. Cas12a (Cpf1) Ultra, in Researching the Potential of Gene-Edited Cell Medicines

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. and CORALVILLE, Iowa, July 29, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Editas Medicine, Inc. (Nasdaq: EDIT), a leading genome editing company, and Integrated DNA Technologies, Inc. (IDT), a leading comprehensive genomics research solutions provider, today announced the publication of research data demonstrating the advantages of Alt-R™ A.s. Cas12a (Cpf1) Ultra, an engineered AsCas12a nuclease variant, as a tool to eventually enable the development of gene-edited cell medicines. The findings were published in the journal Nature Communications.

“We are thrilled Nature Communications published this collaborative paper demonstrating the advantages of Alt-R A.s. Cas12a (Cpf1) Ultra using multiple pre-clinical models, which has enabled Editas to continue our research and development for gene edited cell medicines,” said, Chris Wilson, Ph.D., Vice President, Lead Discovery, Editas Medicine. “Alt-R A.s. Cas12a (Cpf1) Ultra has shown to substantially improve upon the restricted target space and limited specificity of SpCas9, the most widely used Cas nuclease, and the low editing efficiency of wild type AsCas12a, creating what we believe to be a best-in-class nuclease with editing efficiency near 100 percent across sites in multiple cell lines and high on-target specificity. We believe this proprietary nuclease could have important applications in the development of novel therapies for serious genetic diseases such as sickle cell disease. In addition, we see significant opportunities to create engineered cell therapies for cancer.”

“This exciting research demonstrates that Alt-R A.s. Cas12a (Cpf1) Ultra is a robust gene editing tool while maintaining our desired on-target specificity, making it ideal for complex genomic editing applications,” said Chris Vakulskas, Director of Enzyme Evolution, IDT. “The on-target editing efficiency of Alt-R A.s. Cas12a (Cpf1) Ultra has great potential to expand the genome editing space, alleviate off-targeting editing concerns often observed with SpCas9 enzymes, and reduce the complexity of guide RNA manufacturing.”

The published results detail a directed evolution in bacteria to identify a highly active AsCas12a mutant, Alt-R A.s. Cas12a (Cpf1) Ultra, and demonstrate the variant’s superior on-target editing efficacy compared to Cas9 and AsCas12a. The paper summarizes several experiments of Alt-R A.s. Cas12a (Cpf1) Ultra that demonstrated dramatically elevated knock-out and knock-in efficiency in both cancer cell lines and in human primary cells such as hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells (HSPCs), induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), T cells, and natural killer (NK) cells. Overall, the results support further research for the use of Alt-R A.s. Cas12a (Cpf1) Ultra as an advanced CRISPR nuclease with significant potential future applications.

About Editas Medicine
As a leading genome editing company, Editas Medicine is focused on translating the power and potential of the CRISPR/Cas9 and CRISPR/Cas12a (also known as Cpf1) genome editing systems into a robust pipeline of treatments for people living with serious diseases around the world. Editas Medicine aims to discover, develop, manufacture, and commercialize transformative, durable, precision genomic medicines for a broad class of diseases. For the latest information and scientific presentations, please visit www.editasmedicine.com. 

About IDT
Integrated DNA Technologies, Inc. (IDT) develops, manufactures, and markets nucleic acid products for the life sciences industry in the areas of academic and commercial research, agriculture, medical diagnostics, and pharmaceutical development. IDT has developed proprietary technologies for genomics applications such as next generation sequencing, CRISPR genome editing, synthetic biology, digital PCR, and RNA interference. Through its GMP services, IDT manufactures products used by scientists researching many forms of cancer and most inherited and infectious diseases. IDT is widely recognized as the industry leader in custom nucleic acid manufacture, serving over 130,000 life sciences researchers. IDT was founded in 1987 and has its manufacturing headquarters in Coralville, Iowa, USA, with additional manufacturing sites in San Diego, California, USA; Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, USA; Leuven, Belgium; and Singapore. For more information, please visit www.idtdna.com.

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CONTACT: Editas Medicine Contacts:

Media
Cristi Barnett
(617) 401-0113
cristi.barnett@editasmed.com

Investors
Ron Moldaver
(617) 401-9052
ir@editasmed.com

IDT Contacts:

Media
IDT Public Relations
800-328-2661 (USA & Canada)
+1 319-626-8400 (outside USA)
idtpr@idtdna.com
www.idtdna.com