![\"The](\"https:\/\/presidentreport.biu.ac.il\/2025\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/UNBOX-Team-1.jpeg\" "\\"The")
\nBy applying AI to a Bar-Ilan researcher\u2019s genome-editing technology, an UnBox startup is bringing us closer to cures for genetic disease.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1807,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1748","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-innovation","has-post-title","has-post-date","has-post-category","has-post-tag","has-post-comment","has-post-author",""],"builder_content":"
When serial entrepreneur Rom Kshuk first met Bar-Ilan geneticist Prof. Ayal Hendel of the Mina and Everard Goodman Faculty of Life Sciences, it\u2019s fair to say he was a good judge of the potential of the latter\u2019s technology. The CEO of a number successful bio- and agri-tech companies\u2014including the former Future Meat, a world leader in the production of cultured-meat technologies\u2014Kshuk recognized that Hendel\u2019s approach to CRISPR genome-editing optimization could drive forward clinical gene-editing therapies. But no less important in convincing him and his fellow entrepreneur, the ex-Meta research scientist Yaniv Shmueli, that Hendel was the right CSO for their next company were \u201chis entrepreneurial qualities,\u201d Kshuk says. \u201cApart from being a scientist of the first order, Ayal was also fearless and incredibly diligent. We knew he would be willing to take the right risks, and also demonstrate the patience and flexibility required to bring his technology to market.\u201d<\/p>
Six months later, UnBox Venture\u2019s CEO Ariel Sella agreed with that assessment when he offered to make the venture studio\u2014a partnership of Bar-Ilan and Mivtach Shamir Technologies, a leading Israeli holding and investment firm\u2014one of the startup\u2019s first investors, providing pre-seed funding and a residency at the UnBox center on Bar-Ilan\u2019s campus. Called Cassidy Bio, the startup applied Shmueli\u2019s expertise in large language models to the challenge of devising better CRISPR \u201cguide RNA,\u201d or the RNA that guides CRISPR Cas-proteins to the right place on the target DNA. There, the proteins bind to the double strand and cut it, effectively shutting off the problematic gene. \u201cThink of it as a kind of Chat GPT, but instead of generating answers based on large amounts of text data, our technology generates predictions based on the human genetic code,\u201d explains Kshuk. These predictions, which Hendel develops into platforms for optimizing a pharmaceutical company\u2019s guide RNA, aim to make gene-editing therapies safer, more efficient, and more stable\u2014and hence, a common modality.<\/p>\n\n
The Cassidy Bio team<\/p>\n
Fortunately for nearly 300 million people worldwide who suffer from genetic disease, Cassidy Bio is already on path to do just that. Last year, the company\u2014which now boasts 16 employees\u2014raised $8 million in seed funding from the deep-tech and science firm Ahren Innovation Capital; the Israeli venture capital investors Lool and 10D; AION Labs, a venture studio focused on AI in pharmaceutical discover; and leading pharmaceutical companies AstraZenica and Merck. This support brings Cassidy Bio closer to its goal of developing guide RNA platforms for therapies that can address complex disorders, or disorders in which there are mutations in two or more genes. \u201cI\u2019m grateful that UnBox is so welcoming to entrepreneurs and encourages access to academic research,\u201d Kshuk concludes. \u201cIf all universities were like Bar-Ilan in this regard, there\u2019s no doubt that we\u2019ll one day rid the world of genetic disease.\u201d<\/p>","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/presidentreport.biu.ac.il\/2025\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1748","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/presidentreport.biu.ac.il\/2025\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/presidentreport.biu.ac.il\/2025\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/presidentreport.biu.ac.il\/2025\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/presidentreport.biu.ac.il\/2025\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1748"}],"version-history":[{"count":34,"href":"https:\/\/presidentreport.biu.ac.il\/2025\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1748\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3001,"href":"https:\/\/presidentreport.biu.ac.il\/2025\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1748\/revisions\/3001"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/presidentreport.biu.ac.il\/2025\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1807"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/presidentreport.biu.ac.il\/2025\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/presidentreport.biu.ac.il\/2025\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1748"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/presidentreport.biu.ac.il\/2025\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}