Latest news with #JenniferDoudna
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
The 3 Things That Matter for CRISPR Therapeutics Now
Key Points CRISPR Therapeutics' gene-editing treatments are highly customized and shockingly expensive. The market is watching to see if the underlying science can be applied to treat many diseases. The company has plenty of money right now, but its expenses could grow quite a bit from here. 10 stocks we like better than CRISPR Therapeutics › Biotechnology outfit CRISPR Therapeutics (NASDAQ: CRSP) isn't a name on many investors' radar -- and understandably so. Its market capitalization is a mere $6 billion. The company remains in the red largely because it's barely got any revenue to speak of. It's not likely to swing to a profit in the immediate future, either. Still, if you've got room in your portfolio for a little more risk paired with above-average upside potential, this is a stock worth adding to your watchlist (if not your portfolio) with three key things in mind. But first things first. What's CRISPR Therapeutics? Although the company was founded back in 2013, most of its time since then has been spent refining the work first done by Jennifer Doudna, Ph.D., and co-founder Emmanuelle Charpentier, Ph.D., who jointly figured out how to "edit" defective genetic code in a strand of DNA. By using a protein called Cas9 to find and remove a damaged portion of a genetic sequence and then replace it using a gene-editing biotechnology based on clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats -- or CRISPR -- medical science is now able to do what was once unthinkable. It's still early days for the science -- very early. In fact, the FDA only made its first-ever approval of a gene-editing therapy in December of 2023. That's Casgevy, for the treatment of sickle cell disease, which was approved in the U.K. only a month earlier. The thing is, Casgevy is CRISPR Therapeutics' treatment, underscoring how well developed this biotech outfit's science is, and perhaps indirectly underscoring the fact that many rival drug developers are still well behind. Casgevy isn't the company's proverbial big Kahuna, however -- it's merely proof that gene editing can be successfully done. The heavy hitters in CRISPR's developmental pipeline are CTX310 for the treatment of certain cardiovascular diseases, and CTX131 and CTX112, both of which are taking aim at cancer using the very same CRISPR science. Although all of these drugs still have years of developmental work ahead of them, again, the underlying gene-editing technology works. Its potential applications are enormous. That's why CRISPR has a dozen or so others in clinical or pre-clinical trials also underway at this time. Three things to watch As time marches on, though, this stock's backstory is evolving from one broadly driven by an idea to one that increasingly hinges on some very specific factors. To this end, here are the three things that matter the most to current and prospective CRISPR Therapeutics shareholders right now -- and for the foreseeable future -- since they'll either drive the stock higher or let it slide into a sell-off. 1. Insurers and patients' acceptance of CRISPR-based medicine's cost While the science of using CRISPR to repair faulty cells is exciting, it's not exactly cheap or easy. See, Casgevy isn't a pill or an injection. It requires a sample of a patient's own blood stem cells to create a completely customized therapy, which is then infused back into that patient after he or she has undergone chemotherapy. All of this care can only be done at one of CRISPR's 65 authorized treatment centers. Total cost? A little over $2 million per patient. That's pretty steep for any therapy, but particularly for sickle cell disease, which at least has a handful of more affordable treatment options. The cost of treating life-threatening cancer is less of a stumbling block, even for insurers that may occasionally see bills nearly this size for even the most conventional of oncology treatment regimens. The price tag of this and any other future CRISPR-based therapy, however, is likely to remain in this ballpark, where payers may well balk. 2. The ongoing development of CTX310 Again, while Casgevy is approved to treat sickle cell disease, it's really more of a proving ground for the other drugs in CRISPR Therapeutics' developmental pipeline. This, of course, includes CTX131 and CTX112, but the company itself is putting the spotlight on CTX310 as a treatment for ANGPTL3 (angiopoietin-like 3), which is often associated with poorly regulated cholesterol, lipids, and triglycerides. If the company can demonstrate its solution is at least as good as (if not better than) alternative cholesterol-fighting drugs, investors might continue to support this stock. This information is coming. The company posted encouraging early results of CTX310's phase 1 clinical trial late last month, and says it intends to offer more detailed data at a healthcare conference scheduled for later in the year. If it's compelling enough, it could tamp down worries over the high cost of any CRISPR-based treatment. 3. Liquidity Finally, you'll want to keep an eye on CRISPR Therapeutics' liquidity, or the amount of cash it has on hand to cover its operating costs while it continues to develop CTX310 at the same time it's looking to expand Casgevy's commercialization. As of the end of the first quarter, CRISPR was sitting on $1.86 billion in cash, which is a lot for a company of this size. It's working through this money pretty quickly, though, shelling out nearly $150 million in operating expenses in Q1 alone. That doesn't include a full quarter's worth of the sort of costs the phase 1 trial of CTX310 is incurring now, or any other trials it starts or expands in the foreseeable future. Continued revenue growth from Casgevy should seemingly help offset some of this spending, even if not all of it. Indeed, the analyst community expects CRISPR's top line to soar from less than $50 million this year to more than $400 million in 2027, even if these same analysts believe the company will still be well in the red then. A few years' worth of losses isn't exactly unusual for a young biotech start-up. CRISPR Therapeutics would still lack much-needed scale even after such growth, though. The money it needs to spend just to get any meaningful degree of traction from Casgevy or maintain its clinical trials could far exceed any conceivable amount of revenue the newly approved drug might produce in the foreseeable future. Don't confuse what CRSP stock is So what's the call? There isn't one -- not this time. Buying or avoiding a stake in CRISPR Therapeutics is entirely up to you, depending on your risk tolerances and your ability to manage such a holding. If you're strictly a buy-and-hold investor, there's probably not enough certainty here yet to latch onto for the long haul. And there may never be. If you've got a speculative side that can tolerate risk in exchange for hype-driven reward, though, you could make a decent bullish case. Just don't confuse the two, or muddy the waters by trying to be both. The last thing you want to do here is talk yourself into a long-term position that requires you to ignore obvious red flags like the three potential ones discussed above. Should you buy stock in CRISPR Therapeutics right now? Before you buy stock in CRISPR Therapeutics, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the for investors to buy now… and CRISPR Therapeutics wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $636,628!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $1,063,471!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor's total average return is 1,041% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 183% for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor. See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of July 28, 2025 James Brumley has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends CRISPR Therapeutics. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. The 3 Things That Matter for CRISPR Therapeutics Now was originally published by The Motley Fool Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
The 3 Things That Matter for CRISPR Therapeutics Now
Key Points CRISPR Therapeutics' gene-editing treatments are highly customized and shockingly expensive. The market is watching to see if the underlying science can be applied to treat many diseases. The company has plenty of money right now, but its expenses could grow quite a bit from here. 10 stocks we like better than CRISPR Therapeutics › Biotechnology outfit CRISPR Therapeutics (NASDAQ: CRSP) isn't a name on many investors' radar -- and understandably so. Its market capitalization is a mere $6 billion. The company remains in the red largely because it's barely got any revenue to speak of. It's not likely to swing to a profit in the immediate future, either. Still, if you've got room in your portfolio for a little more risk paired with above-average upside potential, this is a stock worth adding to your watchlist (if not your portfolio) with three key things in mind. But first things first. What's CRISPR Therapeutics? Although the company was founded back in 2013, most of its time since then has been spent refining the work first done by Jennifer Doudna, Ph.D., and co-founder Emmanuelle Charpentier, Ph.D., who jointly figured out how to "edit" defective genetic code in a strand of DNA. By using a protein called Cas9 to find and remove a damaged portion of a genetic sequence and then replace it using a gene-editing biotechnology based on clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats -- or CRISPR -- medical science is now able to do what was once unthinkable. It's still early days for the science -- very early. In fact, the FDA only made its first-ever approval of a gene-editing therapy in December of 2023. That's Casgevy, for the treatment of sickle cell disease, which was approved in the U.K. only a month earlier. The thing is, Casgevy is CRISPR Therapeutics' treatment, underscoring how well developed this biotech outfit's science is, and perhaps indirectly underscoring the fact that many rival drug developers are still well behind. Casgevy isn't the company's proverbial big Kahuna, however -- it's merely proof that gene editing can be successfully done. The heavy hitters in CRISPR's developmental pipeline are CTX310 for the treatment of certain cardiovascular diseases, and CTX131 and CTX112, both of which are taking aim at cancer using the very same CRISPR science. Although all of these drugs still have years of developmental work ahead of them, again, the underlying gene-editing technology works. Its potential applications are enormous. That's why CRISPR has a dozen or so others in clinical or pre-clinical trials also underway at this time. Three things to watch As time marches on, though, this stock's backstory is evolving from one broadly driven by an idea to one that increasingly hinges on some very specific factors. To this end, here are the three things that matter the most to current and prospective CRISPR Therapeutics shareholders right now -- and for the foreseeable future -- since they'll either drive the stock higher or let it slide into a sell-off. 1. Insurers and patients' acceptance of CRISPR-based medicine's cost While the science of using CRISPR to repair faulty cells is exciting, it's not exactly cheap or easy. See, Casgevy isn't a pill or an injection. It requires a sample of a patient's own blood stem cells to create a completely customized therapy, which is then infused back into that patient after he or she has undergone chemotherapy. All of this care can only be done at one of CRISPR's 65 authorized treatment centers. Total cost? A little over $2 million per patient. That's pretty steep for any therapy, but particularly for sickle cell disease, which at least has a handful of more affordable treatment options. The cost of treating life-threatening cancer is less of a stumbling block, even for insurers that may occasionally see bills nearly this size for even the most conventional of oncology treatment regimens. The price tag of this and any other future CRISPR-based therapy, however, is likely to remain in this ballpark, where payers may well balk. 2. The ongoing development of CTX310 Again, while Casgevy is approved to treat sickle cell disease, it's really more of a proving ground for the other drugs in CRISPR Therapeutics' developmental pipeline. This, of course, includes CTX131 and CTX112, but the company itself is putting the spotlight on CTX310 as a treatment for ANGPTL3 (angiopoietin-like 3), which is often associated with poorly regulated cholesterol, lipids, and triglycerides. If the company can demonstrate its solution is at least as good as (if not better than) alternative cholesterol-fighting drugs, investors might continue to support this stock. This information is coming. The company posted encouraging early results of CTX310's phase 1 clinical trial late last month, and says it intends to offer more detailed data at a healthcare conference scheduled for later in the year. If it's compelling enough, it could tamp down worries over the high cost of any CRISPR-based treatment. 3. Liquidity Finally, you'll want to keep an eye on CRISPR Therapeutics' liquidity, or the amount of cash it has on hand to cover its operating costs while it continues to develop CTX310 at the same time it's looking to expand Casgevy's commercialization. As of the end of the first quarter, CRISPR was sitting on $1.86 billion in cash, which is a lot for a company of this size. It's working through this money pretty quickly, though, shelling out nearly $150 million in operating expenses in Q1 alone. That doesn't include a full quarter's worth of the sort of costs the phase 1 trial of CTX310 is incurring now, or any other trials it starts or expands in the foreseeable future. Continued revenue growth from Casgevy should seemingly help offset some of this spending, even if not all of it. Indeed, the analyst community expects CRISPR's top line to soar from less than $50 million this year to more than $400 million in 2027, even if these same analysts believe the company will still be well in the red then. A few years' worth of losses isn't exactly unusual for a young biotech start-up. CRISPR Therapeutics would still lack much-needed scale even after such growth, though. The money it needs to spend just to get any meaningful degree of traction from Casgevy or maintain its clinical trials could far exceed any conceivable amount of revenue the newly approved drug might produce in the foreseeable future. Don't confuse what CRSP stock is So what's the call? There isn't one -- not this time. Buying or avoiding a stake in CRISPR Therapeutics is entirely up to you, depending on your risk tolerances and your ability to manage such a holding. If you're strictly a buy-and-hold investor, there's probably not enough certainty here yet to latch onto for the long haul. And there may never be. If you've got a speculative side that can tolerate risk in exchange for hype-driven reward, though, you could make a decent bullish case. Just don't confuse the two, or muddy the waters by trying to be both. The last thing you want to do here is talk yourself into a long-term position that requires you to ignore obvious red flags like the three potential ones discussed above. Should you buy stock in CRISPR Therapeutics right now? Before you buy stock in CRISPR Therapeutics, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the for investors to buy now… and CRISPR Therapeutics wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $636,628!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $1,063,471!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor's total average return is 1,041% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 183% for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor. See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of July 28, 2025 James Brumley has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends CRISPR Therapeutics. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. The 3 Things That Matter for CRISPR Therapeutics Now was originally published by The Motley Fool
Bloomberg
09-06-2025
- Politics
- Bloomberg
CRISPR Is Direct Result of Federal Funding: Doudna
President Donald Trump on Monday threatened to divert billions in grant dollars away from Harvard University and give those funds to trade schools across the US, escalating his clash with the elite institution. Jennifer Doudna, a winner of the Nobel Prize in chemistry for development of CRISPR gene editing said that federal funding is essential for search like hers to start. (Source: Bloomberg)
NBC News
05-06-2025
- Health
- NBC News
Sickle cell patient meets scientist behind technology that saved her life
Victoria Gray is the first person in the world to receive CRISPR, a gene-editing therapy for sickle cell disease created by Dr. Jennifer Doudna who won the Nobel Prize for the life saving technology. NBC News' Zinhle Essamuah sits down with Gray and Doudna as they meet for the first time. June 5, 2025
CBS News
05-06-2025
- Science
- CBS News
New Doudna supercomputer at Berkeley lab to power AI research
A new supercomputer meant to power artificial intelligence will soon be built for the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in partnership with the Department of Energy, Dell Technologies and Nvidia. "We're going to take a giant step up in several areas in high performance computing for scientific computing. But also, artificial intelligence as well as quantum classical computing," said Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang. Huang was joined by U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright who made the announcement last week at the Berkeley Lab. "It's going to lead to tremendous advancement in science, and it's also going to play a role in national defense," said Wright. "And that is what makes it so critical that the United States lead in artificial intelligence." The new computer will be called Doudna, named after UC Berkeley professor Jennifer Doudna, who was awarded the Nobel Prize in 2020 for her work in gene editing technology CRISPR. "I can't wait to see what Doudna is going to calculate," she said. "For me, it really signifies the coming together of computing and biology. This is the future. This is how the next breakthroughs are going to be made." The Doudna computer will be built by next year and will go online and become available to scientists in 2027. Currently, the Berkeley Lab is home to the Perlmutter supercomputer, which is the 19th fastest computer in the world, and part of the National Energy Research Supercomputing Center, known as NERSC, which connects 11,000 scientists worldwide. "So, NERSC is available for anyone who is researching a scientific problem that is related to the Department of Energy's mission," said Jonathan Carter, Associate Lab Director for Computing Sciences at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Those missions include creating nuclear fusion simulations, biological research, climate projections, and even mapping the universe. "So, imagine you have a really souped-up laptop or a gaming PC, and imagine you could put 10,000 of them together tightly, so that any one program that you are running could execute on all those 10,000 CPUs at the same time," explained Carter. Once the Doudna supercomputer is built, it is expected to be at least 10 times faster than the Perlmutter computer. Currently, the world's fastest computer is El Capitan, which is housed also in the Bay Area at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
