Announcing Preventive
Preventive is a public benefit corporation (PBC) dedicated to rigorous research into preventing disease before birth. Our mission is to determine whether the newest generation of gene editing technologies can be used safely and responsibly to correct devastating genetic conditions for future children. If proven to be safe, we believe preventive gene editing could be one of the most important health technologies of the century.
Background
Modern medicine often manages symptoms as patients and families endure progressive decline rather than curing disease. For patients facing serious conditions, addressing the underlying genetic cause of the disease with gene editing has long promised the best chance at a healthy life. Yet despite remarkable scientific advances, this promise remains largely unfulfilled.
Applying this kind of medicine in adults after the disease has taken hold in hundreds of billions of cells is difficult and usually cannot reverse the damage that has already occurred. The incredible therapeutic potential remains, but it is far easier to correct a smaller number of cells before disease progression occurs, such as in an embryo.
The potential benefits of addressing disease in an embryo are significant, including the possibility of greater precision, efficiency, and lower cost than gene editing in adults. However, intervening at this delicate stage of development presents a significant responsibility that must be addressed through rigorous research and regulatory oversight. Unfortunately, to date, most scientists and regulatory bodies best equipped to evaluate these technologies have avoided this controversial field.
The combination of limited expert involvement and lack of a clear regulatory pathway has created conditions for fringe groups to take dangerous shortcuts that could harm patients and stifle responsible investigation. Given that this technology has the potential to save millions of lives, we do not want this to happen.
Preventive
Our goal is straightforward: to determine through rigorous preclinical work whether preventive gene editing can be developed safely to spare families from severe disease. If our research shows it cannot be done safely, that conclusion is equally valuable to the scientific community and society.
We will not advance this technology to clinical human use if safety cannot be established through extensive research. We will not compromise safety standards to accelerate timelines.
We are building a team of leading gene-editing scientists, reproductive clinicians, and drug developers to conduct thorough preclinical research evaluating safety before considering any clinical applications. Our focus for this research will be on preventing severe genetic diseases where families have limited or no alternatives.
I have spent most of my life in the field of gene editing, including receiving my Ph.D. in the lab of CRISPR Nobel Laureate Jennifer Doudna and co-founding Mammoth Biosciences with her—a company that has raised nearly $500 million for gene editing in adults. I believe that, with modern advances in CRISPR, the time is right to ask whether this can now be done safely.
Joining me in this work are Matt Krisiloff, CEO of Conception Biosciences, a research organization developing reproductive technologies to help people have children who otherwise could not; Peyton Randolph, Ph.D. from Harvard in David R. Liu's lab and a co-inventor of prime editing; and Paula Amato, M.D., Professor at Oregon Health & Science University and former President of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine. We continue to expand the team with individuals committed to responsible research.
We have raised nearly $30 million from private funders who share our commitment to pursuing this research responsibly and believe that, with demonstrated safety, this could become one of the most important health technologies of our time.
If you would like to get in touch, please feel free to reach out at lh@preventive.bio
Lucas Harrington,
Preventive PBC
