1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Sergey Jakimov, Co-Founder and Partner at LongeVC (Part 5)

Sramana Mitra: There is the opportunity for gene editing before a baby is born. Then there is the opportunity for gene editing later in life.

Sergey Jakimov: There is a huge ethical component. If you leave that aside, what makes total sense is identifying potential life-threatening diseases or disabilities with DNA-driven factors for unborn babies and introducing these changes early on so that the new person gets to live a normal life. That’s totally fine by me.

Sramana Mitra: Is the science there?

Sergey Jakimov: On the basic level, yes. On the commercial level, it’s not being done to my knowledge.

Sramana Mitra: This stuff hasn’t come in the venture deal flow yet.

Sergey Jakimov: It has, but it is still in the fundamentals stage. It’s not at the stage where a company is going to sell this service. It’s at the research stage where a ton of money is needed. When it comes down to gene editing in the later life, it has a very understandable therapeutic angle where we have diseases such as ALS, MS, Parkinsons, and all sorts of cancer risks. They can be prevented with gene edits. If you leave aside the ethical component, these are all viable.

Sramana Mitra: The adult or post-birth gene editing, have you started seeing those?

Sergey Jakimov: Absolutely. CRISPR-based therapies are in phase one or phase two trials now. These are mostly in cancer. Also in genetic diseases such as type one diabetes.

Sramana Mitra: And the entire range of cognitive disabilities.

Sergey Jakimov: The neuro-degenerative field is a bit complicated. With certain types of cancer and certain certainty, we can say that the mutation of this gene is responsible for that type of cancer to appear. In neuro-degenerative diseases, we are far from understanding the disease mechanics.

We know the symptoms, but we are very bad at understanding why it happens. All the therapies that are around were trying to get rid of the consequences of the source of disease (which we still don’t know). Then again, auto-immune reaction can ultimately be the cause of the disease. With certain gene interventions, you may be able to alter these reactions and remove them.

Sramana Mitra: When your peer group starts to see deals in any of these fields, that means that it has gone a little bit beyond the basic sciences being figured out. I know we’re probably, at least, a decade away from all this impacting human lives, but it has to first get developed. That will come through the early-stage deal flow pipeline.

Sergey Jakimov: You’re right. We step in at the stage where the company has moved past the fundamental science level. That is normally funded by non-equity instruments. The founders of LongeVC has the Longevity Science Foundation. That is the one that allocates non-dilutive grants to fundamentals research, because a lot of promising tech dies before being pitched. It was underfunded by non-equity instruments. When VCs invest in it, it has some shape of a company.

Sramana Mitra: It was a pleasure. Thank you for your time.

This segment is part 5 in the series : 1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Sergey Jakimov, Co-Founder and Partner at LongeVC
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