Mapping cancer drug targets and resistance mutations using gene-editing screens
Cancer cells can evolve resistance to treatment, limiting the lasting benefit of cancer drugs. Understanding resistance and finding new sites to target can depend on lengthy clinical studies and patient biopsy analysis, which may take years to deliver useful insights.
BASE Rx uses gene-editing screens and DNA sequencing to map sites on cancer proteins that drugs could target. Its platform helps researchers identify resistance mutations and new targets for developing longer-lasting cancer treatments.
What stands out about BASE Rx
Received an Innovate UK Biomedical Catalyst grant offer of £ 175,221 for its share of a 2025–2027 cancer drug-resistance project.
Spun out of the Sanger Institute to apply CRISPR base and prime editing to the discovery of druggable cancer targets.
Selected for the 2026 Accelerate@Babraham cohort, receiving early-stage company support through Babraham Research Campus.
Co-founder Matthew Coelho is a CRUK Career Development Fellow with functional genomics, cancer and CRISPR research experience.
Co-founder Mathew Garnett previously co-founded Mosaic Therapeutics, a Sanger spin-out developing targeted cancer treatments.
Founding Sanger research mapped resistance to ten cancer drugs across four cell lines using base-editing screens of 11 cancer genes.
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