Inscripta, Inc., developer of the world’s first benchtop platform for scalable Digital Genome Engineering, today announced the appointment of Deanna Church, Ph.D., Simon Cawley, Ph.D., and Nandini Krishnamurthy, Ph.D., three leading experts in bioinformatics, software engineering, and computational biology. Inscripta’s CRISPR-based platform, which addresses current challenges and limitations of gene editing, will be launched at the SynBioBeta Conference taking place October 1-3 in San Francisco.
Dr. Church recently joined Inscripta to lead the company’s application development efforts for mammalian genome. She has more than 30 years of genomics and bioinformatics experience at leading companies in the sector including 10X Genomics and Personalis, as well as the National Center for Biotechnology Information where she headed the Genome Reference Consortium team. Dr. Church holds a Ph.D. in genomics, genetics, and molecular biology from the University of California, Irvine, and a B.A. from the University of Virginia.
Dr. Cawley will head up computational biology and software engineering for Inscripta and brings more than 20 years of bioinformatics experience to the company. He will be responsible for leading the strategic definition and execution of Inscripta’s informatics solutions. Prior to joining Inscripta, he held similar leadership roles at Thermo Fisher Scientific, Life Technologies, Ion Torrent and Affymetrix. Dr. Cawley holds a Ph.D. in statistics from the University of California, Berkeley, and a B.A. from Trinity College Dublin.
Dr. Krishnamurthy is leading microbial genome engineering applications for Inscripta. She has more than 15 years of research experience in areas including genetics, computational biology and genome editing with positions in DuPont Pioneer, Genentech, the University of California, Berkeley and the Rockefeller University, New York. Dr. Krishnamurthy holds a Ph.D. in Biology from Texas A&M University, College Station and an M.S. in Biotechnology from M.S. University Baroda, India.
“Deanna, Simon, and Nandini are highly regarded experts in their respective fields, and we are excited to welcome them to Inscripta,” said Kevin Ness, CEO of Inscripta. “We are thrilled that top talent has chosen to join us for the next great technical and economic revolution in genomics as we move beyond gene-editing to full-scale genome engineering, with the promise to develop a more stable food supply, sustainable materials, and new therapeutic options.”
CRISPR-based gene editing has the potential to transform our society in many profound ways, but it has not yet delivered on this promise because current technologies are inadequate to address many compelling uses of genome engineering, even for experts in the field. Inscripta is developing a Digital Genome Engineering platform that provides genome-scale engineering using proprietary chemistry and instrumentation to individually manage, engineer, and track individual cells. This will enable researchers to focus on testing multiple biological hypotheses in parallel without having to worry about the laborious task of optimizing complex editing methods.
About Inscripta
Inscripta is developing the world’s first benchtop platform for scalable Digital Genome Engineering. The company’s advanced CRISPR-based platform, consisting of an instrument, reagents, and software, will offer a fully automated workflow that enables multiplexed, trackable editing of cells at an unprecedented scale. Inscripta’s goal is to empower scientists whose gene editing research is stifled by current technical and licensing limitations. By providing this unique platform and engaging in collaborative business practices, such as making its MAD7 CRISPR nuclease free for research purposes, the company enables scientists to realize a new era of biological discovery. Headquartered in Boulder, Colo, with offices in Pleasanton, Calif., and San Diego, Inscripta is backed by leading investors including Venrock, Foresite, Mérieux Développement, Paladin Capital Group, MLS Capital, and NanoDimension. For more information, visit www.inscripta.com
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