Silicon Valley Likes the Idea of Gene-Edited Embryos. It’ll Be a Wait

Two companies aiming to make better babies by tweaking the DNA of embryos were invited to talk about the future of the technology at SynBioBeta, a major gathering of the biotech world scheduled for earlier this month in San Jose, Calif. As the discussion’s moderator, I felt eager to hear more from them about their science and how they might commercialize it. The only problem: By the time the conference rolled around, both companies weren’t in business anymore.

One of the now defunct embryo editing companies was Bootstrap Bio. CEO Chase Denecke said it failed because it simply ran out of money. Persuading more investors to get on board was a challenge when people are barred from using edited embryos to create pregnancies, raising questions about how many customers such a startup could ever attract. “It will obviously be a lot easier to raise money if we have less regulatory barriers,” Denecke said.

The other startup, Manhattan Genomics, fell apart amid a disagreement between its co-founders, Eriona Hysolli and Cathy Tie. The company folded during discussions on moving from the Cayman Islands to the U.S.