Pluristem Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ:PSTI) (TASE:PSTI), a leading biotechnology company, today announced that it has received approval for an additional grant from the Israel Innovation Authority (IIA) to support research based on its cutting-edge PLX platform. The grant comes as part of the Company’s work as part of the CRISPR-IL consortium (“the Consortium”), which the IIA funds through its Bio-Convergence Program. The IIA approved a new budget for the Consortium to continue its work for an additional 18 months (“period B”) after evaluating its activity and results over the past 18 months (“period A”)
As part of the budget, Pluristem is expected to receive approximately 1,800,000 NIS (approximately $583,000) to continue its work in developing a new generation of PLX cells based on the use of CRISPR technology to genetically program desired cell functions in future allogenic products.
As the leader of the consortium’s Pharma Working Group, Pluristem is collaborating with other industry and academic leaders in the field of genome editing, bringing together leading experts in life science and computer science from academia, medicine, and industry, to develop artificial intelligence (AI) based, end-to-end, multi-species genome editing solutions. These solutions are expected to maximize the efficiency and accuracy of CRISPR genome editing of human, plant and animal DNA, and have applications in the pharma, agriculture, and aquaculture industries.
Yaky Yanay, CEO and President said: “The evaluation of the CRISPR-IL Consortium’s work over the last 18 months was successfully completed. The IIA’s continued investment in Pluristem’s participation in this work provides further opportunity to push forward the development of next generation allogeneic cell therapies. We continue to believe that the integration of CRISPR technology in our PLX platform holds great potential to develop the treatments of the future, and the IIA’s approval of additional funds is validation of that belief.”
CRISPR is a genome-editing technology intended to modify specific DNA sequences, which enables the development of unique bio-based products and novel therapeutics while reducing the time and cost of development.
