Many people will take the stage during Medicon Valley Microbiome Pitch Day. The event was created for researchers and entrepreneurs to present projects and startups related to the human microbiome, and hopefully connect with partners wanting to collaborate or invest.
Yet, one person scheduled to speak won’t be pitching their company’s potential. Instead, Jakob Krause Haaber, PhD, who is VP and Head of CRISPR & Delivery Technologies at SNIPR Biome, will be showcasing SNIPR Biome’s journey and accomplishments.
“I think the motivation is for us to tell a success story of a Medicon Valley-based biotech company,” he says. “We're proud of what we're doing and we want to spread the word.”
Founded in 2015, SNIPR Biome is built on technology and patents to use CRISPR for precision cutting of bacterial DNA, which allows SNIPR Biome to, very accurately, kill unwanted bacteria in microbiomes while sparing the good bacteria. According to Krause Haaber, the Copenhagen-based company’s name is wordplay on CRISPR and the precision targeting of bacteria in microbiomes.
“We’re applying CRISPR technology to selectively modulate human microbiomes and address unmet medical needs,” he explains. “We can precisely remove bacteria from microbiomes or produce therapeutic molecules from bacteria in microbiomes.”
Krause Haaber, who leads CRISPR and delivery vehicle engineering operations, joined the company in September 2017 — not long after it received seed funding and started lab operations.
SNIPR Biome has grown tremendously in the four and a half years since then, especially after raising $50 million USD in series A funding. The company now has more than 50 employees from two dozen countries, offices in Cambridge, UK and Boston, US, and its first product is in clinical trials. All of which are part of the “really fast and very fun ride” that Krause Haaber will describe at the Malmömässan Event Centre in Malmö on 27 September.
“I think it shows that if you have a good idea and if you're able to convince other people that you have a good idea…then you can actually move quite far, quite fast,” Krause Haaber says. “It's not just dreams.”
You can learn more about SNIPR Biome’s success at Medicon Valley Microbiome Pitch Day.
