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Sana Biotechnology inks $50M deal for precise gene editing system from Beam Therapeutics

GeekWire

Sana Biotechnology has a new $50 million tool in its toolbox. Gene editing technology is a key component in developing engineered cells as medicines, and we are pleased to have the ability to use the Cas12b system as part of a number of our ex vivo engineered cell programs,” said Steve Harr , Sana’s president and CEO in a statement.

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Cell therapy startup Immusoft lands deal with Takeda worth potentially more than $900M

GeekWire

Under the agreement, Takeda has options to exclusively license programs at the preclinical stage and will take products to the clinic and through commercialization. Immusoft’s most advanced therapeutic program is designed to treat a rare enzyme deficiency disorder, Hurler syndrome.

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Shares of Neoleukin Therapeutics spike after announcing layoffs and potential sale or merger

GeekWire

The publicly traded Seattle biotech company hired investment bank SVB Securities to review potential alternatives including a sale, merger, asset divestiture or licensing. “It Seattle biotech company Good Therapeutics sold its IL-2 program to Roche for $250 million in September and later rebranded as Bonum Therapeutics.

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Merck’s multi-billion dollar bet on Seattle Genetics sparks hope for breast cancer treatments

GeekWire

based biotechnology company struck a deal with Merck in which the pharmaceutical powerhouse will provide a $600 million upfront payment and make a $1 billion equity investment to continue development of treatments for breast cancer. Seattle Genetics CEO Clay Siegall. Seattle Genetics Photo). Merck will own about 2.9

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Seattle biotech startup AltPep raises $23.1M to tackle Alzheimer’s and related diseases

GeekWire

The UW has licensed the exclusive rights of this intellectual property to the startup. This funding will allow us to build upon our promising preliminary data demonstrating detection of Alzheimer’s disease at its earliest stages and further our preclinical therapeutic program,” Daggett said in a statement.

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Juno’s lasting legacy: How the cell therapy juggernaut influenced biotech in Seattle and beyond

GeekWire

Juno veterans went on to start or fill leadership positions at Sana Biotechnology, Lyell Immunopharma, Umoja Biopharma, Shape Therapeutics, GentiBio, Eliem Therapeutics, Genemod, Century Therapeutics, Silverback Therapeutics, Tune Therapeutics, Affini-T Therapeutics, and others. Sana Biotechnology. Photo courtesy of William Canestaro).

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Q&A with Fred Hutch’s new chief data officer on building a data ecosystem at an institutional scale

GeekWire

He develops tools to help understand massive-scale genomic and biomedical data and has helped generate online learning programs that have enrolled more than 8 million people. I think there’s a lot of room for creativity, especially within the data, machine learning and AI space at the interface between biotechnology and data science.

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