GSK’s Barron joins hands with Doudna, Weissman to deploy CRISPR tech in drug discovery
When Hal Barron unveiled his grand plan to turn GlaxoSmithKline’s R&D group around, he championed genetics as one of two key focuses for the UK pharma giant, announcing a discovery deal with 23andme and pledging to focus more on CRISPR tech as well as machine learning. A year later, the R&D chief is building on that promise as he seals a new pact with two prominent CRISPR researchers in his neighborhood in San Francisco.
Jennifer Doudna and Jonathan Weissman, both investigators at Howard Hughes Medical Institute, are throwing their weight behind a new collaboration space dubbed the Laboratory for Genomics Research.
“LGR is about building that space where creative science is partnered with the development of robust technology that will help develop tomorrow’s drugs,” Doudna, who pioneered the use of CRISPR gene editing tool in humans, said in a statement. “I think we’re going to be able to do science that none of us can even imagine today.”
