iNtRON Bio has announced that following its recent US patent application related to colorectal cancer using the IMPA phage engineering technology, it has now completed the filing of two patents for a new IMPA gene editing technology utilizing CRISPR-Cas9 and recombination-based improvement methods targeting Pasteurella bacteriophages.
The newly developed IMPA gene editing technology targets the capsid of bacteriophages infecting Pasteurella bacteria to produce modular phages and improve them so that multiple payloads can be loaded. It is a fundamental technology patent for various genetic engineering techniques, including gene editing, foreign protein labelling, and the introduction of novel capsids.
iNtRON Bio explained that, based on AI-driven analysis and multi-omics data, it utilised its integrated database (IDB), which consists of the ‘ip-Virtual BR Bank’ containing more than 11,000 bacteriophage records and more than 600 whole genome sequences (WGS) of bacteriophages isolated and secured by the company. By selecting useful genetic resources applicable to novel CRISPR-Cas9 systems and recombination technologies and implementing them in bacteriophage gene editing technologies, it is expected that the technology will be used as a core platform for the development of anticancer drugs and vaccines in the future.
The newly filed patents present a method to precisely manipulate the genes of bacteriophages infecting Pasteurella strains using the CRISPR-Cas9 system. This involves developing and applying a plasmid capable of specific genetic manipulation at target sites while maintaining the original infectivity, thereby maximizing editing efficiency. Additionally, a dedicated plasmid capable of implementing a recombination system was also developed, enabling genetic modifications to be performed in a shorter period of time. Furthermore, the fact that gene editing of Pasteurella bacteriophages has become possible using these two improvement techniques is significant as it is the first case reported worldwide.
Jisu Son, head of the BD division of the company, said: “With the securing of the IMPA gene editing technology through this patent filing, we can now go beyond simply using bacteriophages as antibiotic alternatives for bacterial control, and expand the scope of application to a platform technology for developing targeted therapeutics or vaccines that label peptides or proteins selectively acting on specific diseases. This technology has enormous potential for broad use across the entire pharmaceutical industry, and we plan to apply it to gene editing of bacteriophages infecting bacteria other than Pasteurella in order to discover and select more effective drug candidates.”
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