Bengaluru biotech start-up opens lab to develop disease diagnostics with gene editing tech

“The launch of our new facility in Bengaluru is a significant milestone in our journey to deliver affordable and high-quality solutions to enhance the health of people and the planet. The state-of-the-art CRISPR gene editing laboratory and diagnostics will better equip us to meet critical needs and develop solutions that have significant commercial and social impact,” CrisprBits founder Dr Vijay Chandru said.

CrisprBits firm was founded in 2020 by Dr Chandru and four other BITS Pilani alumni – Sunil Arora, Dr Rajeev Kohli, Bharat Jobanputra, and Aditya Sarda.

CrisprBits is the fourth tech start-up of Dr Chandru following the simple computing platform called Simputer which emerged out of IISc over two decades ago, the life sciences firm Strand Life Sciences – which was acquired by Reliance, and Yantri Labs which is using AI, mathematical modelling, and psychology to under stock market behaviour.

CrisprBits was incubated at the Center For Cellular and Molecular Platforms (CCAMP) for four years and the start-up is looking at developing a rapid point-of-need molecular diagnostics platform using the CRISPR gene editing knowledge of its scientists.

“In the next few months, CrisprBits aims to launch several key tests in affordable rare disease diagnostics and hospital-acquired infections (HAI) including antimicrobial resistance tests using the platform,” the laboratory said.

“Over the next six months, CrisprBits plans to introduce novel applications of CRISPR in building iPSC (Induced pluripotent stem cells) models for rare diseases and targeted editing of cell lines and microbes important for industrial microbiology applications,” the lab added.

The scientific team at the laboratory is headed by a group of women – Vaijayanti Gupta, Reety Arora, and Vandana Hegde – who have a track record in genomic science, molecular diagnostics, and gene editing.