Innovating gene switch technologies for regulating gene therapy
TREAD-ing ahead into a world of better gene therapy
Innovating gene switch technologies for regulating gene therapy
TREAD-ing ahead into a world of better gene therapy
About Tread Bio
Our Mission
At Tread Bio, our mission is to innovate and provide clinically applicable gene switch technologies to drug developers, enabling them to make safe and controllable gene therapies for the treatment of genetic diseases.
OUR INNOVATION
TREAD technology
Tread Bio develops a new "mini" gene switch called "TREAD", or "Termination Readthrough based Expression Adjusting Device". TREAD consists of two components: 1) a proprietary, 9-nucleotide DNA effector "TRSTOP" that can be easily inserted into the target gene and keep gene expression "OFF"; 2) a clinically available chemical “inducer” that will act on the DNA effector and switch "ON" gene expression when present.
Advantages of TREAD
TREAD has three major advantages: 1) its DNA component, consisting of only 9 nucleotides, is several orders of magnitude smaller than existing switches; 2) TREAD does not introduce any exogenous proteins into the cell and thus has less risk of reaction from the human immune system; 3) TREAD's chemical inducer is a safe drug that is already approved for clinical use.
Potential impact
Market sector
It is estimated that 70-80 million people worldwide are affected by genetic diseases. With a market value projected to be worth over one billion US dollars by 2030, there is a significant unmet need for clinically applicable gene and molecular switches.
Disease target
TREAD could have broad applications in cell and gene therapy for management of treatment-associated side effects and regulation of gene expression for better clinical outcome. For instance, it would be useful for developing gene replacement therapies against many "loss-of-function" genetic diseases such as Rett syndrome and Friedreich ataxia, in which over-expressions of correct genes are known to be detrimental.
"On-command" gene editing?
To demonstrate feasibility, we have incorporated TREAD into an "all-in-one", adeno-associated virus vector that delivers a large-sized CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing machinery. TREAD could make CRISPR gene editing "on-command".
our team
Yifan Evan Ding
Yifan Evan Ding
Yifan Evan Ding
Founder & CEO
Jenna Liang
Yifan Evan Ding
Yifan Evan Ding
Co-founder & Chief Business Officer