The Gene Editing Institute of Christiana Care Health System’s Helen F. Graham Cancer Center & Research Institute has been awarded a $900,000 grant.
The grant came from the U.S.-Israel Binational Industrial Research and Development (BIRD) Foundation in partnership with the biotechnology company NovellusDx.
The BIRD Foundation promotes collaboration between U.S. and Israeli companies in technology fields.
Projects submitted to the BIRD Foundation undergo evaluation by the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology of the U.S. Department of Commerce and by the Israel Innovation Authority.
The grant allows the Gene Editing Institute to become a partner with Jerusalem-based NovellusDx on a new series of gene editing technologies that help identify the genetic mechanism responsible for the onset and progression of many types of cancer.
The two organizations are collaborating on a licensing agreement to commercialize the gene editing technologies that result from the research.
“Thanks to this generous BIRD Foundation grant, this partnership promises to be a catalyst that will speed progress in personalized medicine for many forms of cancer, accelerating the path to prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and ultimately, to a cure of cancer,” said Nicholas J. Petrelli, M.D., the Bank of America endowed medical director of the Helen F. Graham Cancer Center & Research Institute.
“We are honored to partner with the exceptional team at NovellusDx to advance genomic cancer research and to discover new gene editing techniques,” said Eric Kmiec, Ph.D., director of the Gene Editing Institute. “Our partnership is not only based on the skills of both organizations but on the unique opportunity to license our gene editing technology with a company capable of commercializing it. The due diligence and peer review process for this award are extensive.”
NovellusDx has established a unique approach to identify unknown “driver” gene mutations. With clinical partners that include the MD Anderson Cancer Center and Massachusetts General Hospital in the U.S., NovellusDx obtains DNA sequence information and creates a personal profile of the genetic mutations from individual patients.
The Gene Editing Institute will use its expertise in gene editing to recreate the mutations that allow NovellusDx and its partners to identify, design and implement the most effective therapy for each patient.
Cancer genomics plays a critical role in the study of how genes impact a patient’s response to drugs. “With our joint research, we hope to develop gene editing technologies that help develop effective, safe medications and doses that can be tailored to a person’s genetic profile,” Kmiec said. “This will lead to precision and personalized cancer therapy at its very best.”
“We have been working closely with Dr. Kmiec and the Gene Editing Institute for the last nine months to generate preliminary data to support this ground-breaking idea and grant application,” said Haim Gil-Ad, CEO of NovellusDx. “We are excited that the BIRD Foundation with its stringent review process found our application worthy of the generous funding, which also provides external validation. This work has the potential to change the way functional genomics is done. Once the genetic makeup is known, we will be immediately able to test and monitor the effect of the patient mutations in live cells.”
The Gene Editing Institute is partnering with The Wistar Institute to develop translational genetic approaches to melanoma cancer research, and with Bio-Rad Inc. to advance a gene editing educational curriculum.
In addition, with funding from the U.S. National Institutes of Health, the Gene Editing Institute is developing a gene editing strategy for the treatment of sickle cell anemia.
The BIRD Foundation supports projects without receiving any equity or intellectual property rights in the participating companies or in the projects themselves. BIRD funding is repaid as royalties from sales of products that were commercialized as a result of BIRD support. The Foundation shares the risk and does not require repayment if the project fails to reach the sales stage.
Assisting in the process was The Philadelphia-Israel Chamber of Commerce (PICC), a representative of BIRD in Pennsylvania and Delaware.
“We are very excited to help facilitate funding for a cutting-edge joint venture advancing cancer treatments between local and Israeli partners stimulating the Israeli and local economies,” stated David Allon, president of the Philadelphia-Israel Chamber of Commerce.
In addition to providing conditional grants of up to $1 million for approved projects, the Bird Foundation assists by working with companies to identify potential strategic partners and facilitate introductions.
