Prime Medicine

Developed in the lab of Dr. David Liu at the Broad Institute, Prime Medicine was founded to deliver the promise of gene editing to patients with genetic diseases.  The ability to introduce nearly any desired edit to restore normal genetic function has long been viewed as the ‘holy grail’ in the gene editing space.  While there are approaches to accomplish this with first generation CRISPR-based technologies – which are based on introducing double strand breaks into DNA – efficiencies have historically been low (these technologies are very well suited to introducing gene disruptions). Base editing was a significant step forward in gene editing, but the technology only allows for select base-to-base changes.  Prime editing introduced, for the first time, the ability to efficiently introduce any base-to-base edit as well as to correct insertions and deletions, creating an opportunity to address more than 90 percent of known disease-causing genetic mutations.

First-generation CRISPR/Cas9 technologies can be likened to scissors, base editing to a pencil and eraser, and Prime Editing to a word processor, enabling search and replace genome editing and representing a significant improvement in precision and breadth of possibilities.

At F-Prime, we believe that Prime’s transformative technology is a major advancement towards their vision of creating a world where Prime Editing can potentially cure, halt and ultimately prevent genetic diseases.

It was an honor to support Prime through their Series A and Series B funding rounds alongside other leading healthcare investors. We share a common goal to improve the lives of patients with a wide range of genetic diseases.