Illumina fund backs Sherlock Biosciences for CRISPR-based diagnostics
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A venture capital fund formed by the gene-sequencing company, Illumina (NASDAQ:ILMN), has joined the latest funding round of Sherlock Biosciences to help the Boston, Massachusetts-based biotech to bolster its CRISPR-based diagnostic platform.
The Series B financing worth $80 million was led by Novalis LifeSciences and included Illumina Ventures, Albany Capital, and Catalio Capital Management, among others.

With the latest capital raise, the total funding secured by Sherlock Biosciences has reached $111 million to date.
The company was the first to win regulatory authorization for a CRISPR-based COVID-19 test in 2020.
âThis new funding will drive development of products and partnerships, enabled by this platform, that can operate at ambient temperature without complex instrumentation, opening up a wide range of applications in low resource settings including the home,â Sherlock Biosciences said.

The company is backed by an exclusive licensing deal for CRISPR gene editing with the Broad Institute, which recently won a favorable ruling on its claims for certain patents related to CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing in human cells.