Developing tailored genome editors for inherited liver and retinal diseases
Inherited liver and retinal diseases can be caused by DNA changes that existing medicines leave uncorrected. Genome-editing tools do not reach every disease-causing sequence and can introduce unintended changes, restricting which patients can be treated and complicating safe therapy development.
Nerai is developing genome editors tailored to mutations behind rare inherited liver and retinal diseases. Its preclinical platform combines protein engineering and cellular testing to reach more genetic targets while improving the precision of editing.
What stands out about Nerai
Co-founder Vincent Forster built Versantis, acquired by GENFIT in 2022 for CHF 40M upfront plus contingent consideration.
In founders’ 2025 academic research, three RNA prime-editing doses corrected 8% of a liver-gene target in phenylketonuria mice.
Co-founder Kim Marquart led a 2024 study engineering the compact TnpB editor and characterizing its activity at 10,211 target sites.
Scientific co-founder Gerald Schwank established genome-editing research at ETH Zurich before moving his laboratory to the University of Zurich in 2020.
Nerai won CHF 150,000 in Venture Kick support in November 2024 to advance preclinical work and strategic partnerships.
Nerai is a University of Zurich spin-off developing engineered genome editors for inherited liver and retinal diseases.
Co-founder Kim Marquart received UZH Entrepreneur Fellowship support in 2024–2026 to advance Nerai’s genome-editing project.
Nerai was selected for Venture Leaders Biotech 2025, joining nine other Swiss startups on a business-development and investor roadshow in Boston.
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