BIO 2025: Uncovering the Next Innovations in Gene Editing
Ahead of BIO 2025, The Pharma Navigator chats with Monika Paulė from Caszyme to discuss a new CRISPR nuclease family, the UNCOVER project, and what she is looking forward to at this year’s conference.
Clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR) genome editing is a highly precise tool that has potentially revolutionary prospects in the treatment of genetic diseases. While the most researched type of CRISPR-associated proteins (CRISPR/Cas) are the CRISPR/Cas9, these systems are actually incredibly diverse and complex (1).
“We have developed a novel family called Cas12l,” reveals Monika Paulė, CEO and Co-Founder of gene editing company, Caszyme. “[This nuclease family] falls under the Type V [classification], but it has only a few different candidates within the family, it’s very distinct and different homology-wise from any other Type-Vs.”
In terms of its size, it is pretty small, at approximately 850 amino acids, and is very comparable to the Cas9 family in the way it functions, which has been demonstrated in various studies, Paulė continues. “So, let’s say for the companies that, due to size limitations or IP [intellectual property] limitations, want to have an alternative to Cas9, then Cas12l is really an amazing choice,” she says.
Additionally, Caszyme has recently announced its participation in the UNCOVER project, which is a consortium that also includes Korean company, nSAGE, and Vilnius University (2). “We are collaborating on the development of a novel CRISPR-based diagnostics platform that we plan to make very easily adaptable to different kinds of indications,” Paulė specifies. “[This platform] will be relevant for infectious diseases and more complex indications as well.”
Click the video above to view the full interview
References
Makarova, K.S.; Koonin, E.V. Annotation and Classification of CRISPR-Cas Systems. Methods Mol. Biol., 2015, 1311, 47–75.
Caszyme. Caszyme, nSAGE, and Vilnius University Consortium Aims to UNCOVER New Insights with Diagnostics Platform Co-Development. Press Release, April 7, 2025.
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