Barcelona, Seville (June, 15)– Zip Solutions (Biat Group, ticker BST) and Dr. Miguel Ángel Moreno-Mateos have entered into a strategic collaboration to advance the optimisation of precision gene editing. Gene editing is a revolutionary technology that allows us to make precise changes to DNA, the molecule that contains our genetic instructions. With this tool, we can correct or modify specific genes, opening up new possibilities in research and treatment of genetic diseases. Gene editing has the potential to improve the quality of life and open avenues towards personalised and more effective therapies in biomedicine. Although it is a recent tool, several companies such as Editas Medicine (ticker EDIT), Beam Therapeutics (ticker BEAM) or Prime Medicine (ticker PRME) are already bringing gene editing-based candidates into clinical development for different genetic diseases such as sickle cell disease.

Zip Solutions is making its patented collection of split-inteins available to the collaboration, seeking to optimise the so-called “base editors”, the tools used to achieve precision gene editing, as well as research staff with extensive experience in this field. Dr. Moreno-Mateos brings more than ten years of experience in the optimisation of in-vivo genome editing. A pioneer in the optimisation of in-vivo CRISPR-Cas tools using zebrafish as a model, Dr Moreno-Mateos implemented a computational model for the efficient use of CRISPR-SpCas9 (Moreno-Mateos et al. 2015, Nature Methods) and optimised CRISPR-Cas12a technology (Moreno-Mateos et al. 2017, Nature Communications) during his time at Yale University as an Associate Research Scientist in Prof. Antonio Giraldez’s group. Since 2019, Dr Moreno-Mateos’ lab, located at the Andalusian Centre for Developmental Biology (CABD) in Seville, has been developing and optimising new CRISPR-Cas systems (Vicencio et al., 2022 Nature Communications).

The joint work between ZIP and Dr Moreno represents a step forward in the search for solutions to genetic diseases in the new framework of precision medicine.

About Zip Solutions: Zip Solutions (Parc Scientific de Barcelona) is a BIAT group company that develops and commercialises platforms in the field of biotechnology such as Click-Gene, Click-Target, Click-CAR, Click-Bio or Click’N cut, based on its patented set of Split-inteins.

About Dr. Miguel Ángel Moreno-Mateos: Dr. Miguel Ángel Moreno-Mateos is Principal Investigator at the CABD and Ramón y Cajal contract holder at the Pablo de Olavide University. The laboratory he heads specialises in the optimisation of in-vivo CRISPR-Cas tools and their applications to understand early development in vertebrates and human diseases.