Arbor Biotechnologies

Arbor Biotechnologies specializes in gene editing to develop novel therapeutics for a variety of indications, starting with liver-related diseases. It operates an AI-powered biodiscovery platform to discover novel CRISPR enzymes, which are sequences of repeating genetic code. To do this, its platform deploys computational search techniques, genome sequencing, gene synthesis, and high-throughput screening. This can eventually be turned into drugs or even applied to agriculture and other industrial uses. In 2018, the company announced the discovery of Cas13d, a new type of gene editing enzyme that helps to alter RNA to treat genetic diseases. 

As of February 2024, the company had five internal drug discovery programs, of which one was in the IND-enabling stage. It also has multiple collaborative programs under development focused on oncology and various other therapeutic areas.

Key customers and partnerships

The company has a long-standing partnership with Vertex Pharmaceuticals since January 2019 , which focused on developing gene-editing treatments for cystic fibrosis and four other diseases. The alliance was further extended in August 2021 and January 2023 . 

Other partnerships included a collaboration with Ginkgo Bioworks (December 2023) to leverage Ginkgo's R&D services to further optimize Arbor's novel precision editors, a non-exclusive licensing agreement with EdiGene (February 2022) to leverage Arbor’s platform for ex vivo oncology therapies, a strategic research and non-exclusive licensing agreement with TCR2 Therapeutics (January 2022) to develop allogeneic TRuC T-cell therapies using Arbor’s CRISPR technology, and a license agreement with Lonza (December 2020) to use Arbor’s gene-editing technology for Lonza’s bioproduction products and services.

Funding and financials

In its latest Series B funding round in November 2021, which was led by Ally Bridge Group, TCG Crossover, and Temasek, Arbor Biotechnologies raised USD 215 million. The proceeds of the round were earmarked to fuel the company’s clinical development pipeline.