Baby KJ scientist launches personalized CRISPR therapy startup

Menlo Ventures has made a $16 million bet that the “baby KJ” custom CRISPR therapy success story is repeatable. The funding has enabled CRISPR co-inventor Jennifer Doudna, Ph.D., and baby KJ scientist Fyodor Urnov, Ph.D., to launch Aurora Therapeutics with a vision of treating the long tail of rare diseases.

California-based VC shop Menlo has backed Aurora in the belief that the conditions needed to develop treatments for the rarest of rare diseases, down to conditions that affect a single patient, are now in place. As Menlo sees things, the genetic causes of many of the more than 7,000 rare diseases that affect 350 million people globally are known and correctable. The challenge has been acting on that knowledge.

Menlo named the FDA’s “plausible mechanism pathway,” which offersa route to market for personalized therapies, as one of the changes that mean action is now possible. The VC fund also flagged technologies that could accelerate drug design and testing and support personalized manufacturing as key advances. 

Encouraged by the developments, Menlo incubated Aurora, provided seed funding and installed...