A West Coast biotech entrepreneur says he\u2019s secured $30 million to form a public-benefit company to study how to safely create genetically edited babies, marking the largest known investment into the taboo technology.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
The new company, called Preventive, is being formed to research so-called \u201cheritable genome editing,\u201d in which the DNA of embryos would be modified by correcting harmful mutations or installing beneficial genes. The goal would be to prevent disease.<\/p>\n
Preventive was founded by the gene-editing scientist Lucas Harrington, who described his plans yesterday in a blog post<\/a> announcing the venture. Preventive, he said, will not rush to try out the technique but instead will dedicate itself \u201cto rigorously researching whether heritable genome editing can be done safely and responsibly.\u201d<\/p>\n Creating genetically edited humans remains controversial, and the first scientist to do it, in China, was imprisoned for three years<\/a>. The procedure remains illegal in many countries, including the US, and doubts surround its usefulness as a form of medicine.<\/p>\n Still, as gene-editing technology races forward, the temptation to shape the future of the species may prove irresistible, particularly to entrepreneurs keen to put their stamp on the human condition. In theory, even small genetic tweaks could create people who never get heart disease or Alzheimer\u2019<\/a>s, and who would pass those traits on to their own offspring.<\/p>\n According to Harrington, if the technique proves safe, it \u201ccould become one of the most important health technologies of our time.\u201d He has estimated that editing an embryo would cost only about $5,000 and believes regulations could change in the future.\u00a0<\/p>\n Preventive is the third US startup this year to say it is pursuing technology to produce gene-edited babies. The first, Bootstrap Bio, based in California, is reportedly seeking seed funding<\/a> and has an interest in enhancing intelligence. Another, Manhattan Genomics<\/a>, is also in the formation stage but has not announced funding yet.<\/p>\n As of now, none of these companies have significant staff or facilities, and they largely lack any credibility among mainstream gene-editing scientists. Reached by email, Fyodor Urnov, an expert in gene editing at the University of California, Berkeley, where Harrington studied, said he believes such ventures should not move forward.<\/p>\n Urnov has been a pointed critic<\/a> of the concept of heritable genome editing, calling it dangerous, misguided, and a distraction from the real benefits of gene editing to treat adults and children.\u00a0<\/p>\n In his email, Urnov said the launch of still another venture into the area made him want to \u201chowl with pain.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Harrinton\u2019s venture was incorporated in Delaware in May 2025,under the name Preventive Medicine PBC. As a public-benefit corporation, it is organized to put its public mission above profits. \u201cIf our research shows [heritable genome editing] cannot be done safely, that conclusion is equally valuable to the scientific community and society,\u201d Harrington wrote in his post.<\/p>\n Harrington is a cofounder of Mammoth Biosciences, a gene-editing company pursuing drugs for adults, and remains a board member there.<\/p>\n In recent months, Preventive has sought endorsements from leading figures in genome editing, but according to its post, it had secured only one\u2014from Paula Amato, a fertility doctor at Oregon Health Sciences University, who said she had agreed to act as an advisor to the company.<\/p>\n Amato is a member of a US team that has researched embryo editing in the country since 2017, <\/a>and she has promoted the technology<\/a> as a way to increase IVF success. That could be the case if editing could correct abnormal embryos, making more available for use in trying to create a pregnancy.<\/p>\n It remains unclear where Preventive\u2019s funding is coming from. Harrington said the $30 million was gathered from \u201cprivate funders who share our commitment to pursuing this research responsibly.\u201d But he declined to identify those investors other than SciFounders, a venture firm he runs with his personal and business partner Matt Krisiloff, the CEO of the biotech company Conception<\/a>, which aims to create human eggs from stem cells.<\/p>\n That\u2019s yet another technology that could change reproduction, if it works. Krisiloff is listed as a member of Preventive\u2019s founding team.<\/p>\n The idea of edited babies has received growing attention from figures in the cryptocurrency business. These include Brian Armstrong, the billionaire founder of Coinbase, who has held a series of off-the-record dinners to discuss the technology (which Harrington attended). Armstrong previously argued that the \u201ctime is right\u201d<\/a> for a startup venture in the area.<\/p>\n Will Harborne, a crypto entrepreneur and partner at LongGame Ventures, says he\u2019s \u201cthrilled\u201d to see Preventive launch. If the technology proves safe, he argues, \u201cwidespread adoption is inevitable,\u201d calling its use a \u201csocietal obligation.\u201d<\/p>\n Harborne\u2019s fund has invested in Herasight<\/a>, a company that uses genetic tests to rank IVF embryos for future IQ and other traits. That\u2019s another hotly debated technology, but one that has already reached the market, since such testing isn\u2019t strictly regulated. Some have begun to use the term \u201chuman enhancement companies<\/a>\u201d to refer to such ventures.<\/p>\n What\u2019s still lacking is evidence that leading gene-editing specialists support these ventures. Preventive was unsuccessful in establishing a collaboration with at least one key research group, and Urnov says he had harsh words for Manhattan Genomics when that company reached out to him about working together. \u201cI encourage you to stop,\u201d he wrote back. \u201cYou will cause zero good and formidable harm.\u201d<\/p>\n Harrington thinks Preventive could change such attitudes, if it shows that it is serious about doing responsible research. \u201cMost scientists I speak with either accept embryo editing as inevitable or are enthusiastic about the potential but hesitate to voice these opinions publicly,\u201d he told MIT Technology Review<\/em> earlier this year. \u201cPart of being more public about this is to encourage others in the field to discuss this instead of ignoring it.\u201d<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A West Coast biotech entrepreneur says he\u2019s secured $30 million to form a public-benefit company to study how to safely create genetically edited babies, marking the largest known investment into the taboo technology.\u00a0\u00a0 The new company, called Preventive, is being formed to research so-called \u201cheritable genome editing,\u201d in which the DNA of embryos would be modified by correcting harmful mutations or installing beneficial genes. The goal would be to prevent disease. Preventive was founded by the gene-editing scientist Lucas Harrington, who described his plans yesterday in a blog post announcing the venture. Preventive, he said, will not rush to try out the technique but instead will dedicate itself \u201cto rigorously researching whether heritable genome editing can be done safely and responsibly.\u201d Creating genetically edited humans remains controversial, and the first scientist to do it, in China, was imprisoned for three years. The procedure remains illegal in many countries, including the US, and doubts surround its usefulness as a form of medicine. Still, as gene-editing technology races forward, the temptation to shape the future of the species may prove irresistible, particularly to entrepreneurs keen to put their stamp on the human condition. In theory, even small genetic tweaks could create people who never get heart disease or Alzheimer\u2019s, and who would pass those traits on to their own offspring. According to Harrington, if the technique proves safe, it \u201ccould become one of the most important health technologies of our time.\u201d He has estimated that editing an embryo would cost only about $5,000 and believes regulations could change in the future.\u00a0 Preventive is the third US startup this year to say it is pursuing technology to produce gene-edited babies. The first, Bootstrap Bio, based in California, is reportedly seeking seed funding and has an interest in enhancing intelligence. Another, Manhattan Genomics, is also in the formation stage but has not announced funding yet. As of now, none of these companies have significant staff or facilities, and they largely lack any credibility among mainstream gene-editing scientists. Reached by email, Fyodor Urnov, an expert in gene editing at the University of California, Berkeley, where Harrington studied, said he believes such ventures should not move forward. Urnov has been a pointed critic of the concept of heritable genome editing, calling it dangerous, misguided, and a distraction from the real benefits of gene editing to treat adults and children.\u00a0 In his email, Urnov said the launch of still another venture into the area made him want to \u201chowl with pain.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 Harrinton\u2019s venture was incorporated in Delaware in May 2025,under the name Preventive Medicine PBC. As a public-benefit corporation, it is organized to put its public mission above profits. \u201cIf our research shows [heritable genome editing] cannot be done safely, that conclusion is equally valuable to the scientific community and society,\u201d Harrington wrote in his post. Harrington is a cofounder of Mammoth Biosciences, a gene-editing company pursuing drugs for adults, and remains a board member there. In recent months, Preventive has sought endorsements from leading figures in genome editing, but according to its post, it had secured only one\u2014from Paula Amato, a fertility doctor at Oregon Health Sciences University, who said she had agreed to act as an advisor to the company. Amato is a member of a US team that has researched embryo editing in the country since 2017, and she has promoted the technology as a way to increase IVF success. That could be the case if editing could correct abnormal embryos, making more available for use in trying to create a pregnancy. It remains unclear where Preventive\u2019s funding is coming from. Harrington said the $30 million was gathered from \u201cprivate funders who share our commitment to pursuing this research responsibly.\u201d But he declined to identify those investors other than SciFounders, a venture firm he runs with his personal and business partner Matt Krisiloff, the CEO of the biotech company Conception, which aims to create human eggs from stem cells. That\u2019s yet another technology that could change reproduction, if it works. Krisiloff is listed as a member of Preventive\u2019s founding team. The idea of edited babies has received growing attention from figures in the cryptocurrency business. These include Brian Armstrong, the billionaire founder of Coinbase, who has held a series of off-the-record dinners to discuss the technology (which Harrington attended). Armstrong previously argued that the \u201ctime is right\u201d for a startup venture in the area. Will Harborne, a crypto entrepreneur and partner at LongGame Ventures, says he\u2019s \u201cthrilled\u201d to see Preventive launch. If the technology proves safe, he argues, \u201cwidespread adoption is inevitable,\u201d calling its use a \u201csocietal obligation.\u201d Harborne\u2019s fund has invested in Herasight, a company that uses genetic tests to rank IVF embryos for future IQ and other traits. That\u2019s another hotly debated technology, but one that has already reached the market, since such testing isn\u2019t strictly regulated. Some have begun to use the term \u201chuman enhancement companies\u201d to refer to such ventures. What\u2019s still lacking is evidence that leading gene-editing specialists support these ventures. Preventive was unsuccessful in establishing a collaboration with at least one key research group, and Urnov says he had harsh words for Manhattan Genomics when that company reached out to him about working together. \u201cI encourage you to stop,\u201d he wrote back. \u201cYou will cause zero good and formidable harm.\u201d Harrington thinks Preventive could change such attitudes, if it shows that it is serious about doing responsible research. \u201cMost scientists I speak with either accept embryo editing as inevitable or are enthusiastic about the potential but hesitate to voice these opinions publicly,\u201d he told MIT Technology Review earlier this year. \u201cPart of being more public about this is to encourage others in the field to discuss this instead of ignoring it.\u201d<\/p>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"pmpro_default_level":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"_pvb_checkbox_block_on_post":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[52,5,7,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-48449","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ai-club","category-committee","category-news","category-uncategorized","pmpro-has-access"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n