A biotech entrepreneur has raised $30 million to launch Preventive, a public-benefit company dedicated to studying whether gene-edited babies can be made safely—the largest known investment yet in the field of heritable genome editing, as MIT Technology Review’s Antonio Regalado reports.
Founded by gene-editing scientist Lucas Harrington, a cofounder of Mammoth Biosciences, Preventive will research modifying embryo DNA to correct harmful mutations or install protective genes. In a blog post announcing the venture, Harrington pledged not to rush, committing instead “to rigorously researching whether heritable genome editing can be done safely and responsibly.”
The stakes are high. The first scientist to create gene-edited babies, China’s He Jiankui, was imprisoned for three years, and the procedure remains illegal in the U.S. and many other countries. Still, Harrington argues that if it proves safe, it “could become one of the most important health technologies of our time,” and he estimates editing an embryo could cost only about $5,000.
Preventive is the third U.S. startup this year to chase the idea, after Bootstrap Bio and Manhattan Genomics. None has significant staff or facilities, and mainstream gene-editing scientists remain unconvinced. Fyodor Urnov, a gene-editing expert at the University of California, Berkeley, said the latest launch made him want to “howl with pain.” When Manhattan Genomics approached him, he replied: “I encourage you to stop. You will cause zero good and formidable harm.”
Preventive’s backers are largely undisclosed beyond SciFounders, a venture firm Harrington runs with partner Matt Krisiloff. Enthusiasm has grown among crypto figures, including Coinbase founder Brian Armstrong. Will Harborne, a crypto entrepreneur and partner at LongGame Ventures, calls the technology’s use a “societal obligation.”
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Harrington hopes Preventive can coax quieter supporters into the open. “Most scientists I speak with either accept embryo editing as inevitable or are enthusiastic about the potential but hesitate to voice these opinions publicly,” he said.
