Genome Canada and Ontario Genomics Award Specific Biologics and Western University $1.8 Million Grant to Develop a Machine Learning Platform to Accelerate the Development of the Company's Dualase®-based Therapeutics
Funding will expand the range of Dualase® genome editors for new high morbidity and mortality genetic disease targets.
TORONTO, March 18, 2026 /CNW/ - Specific Biologics Inc. ("Specific"), a biotechnology company developing industry-leading in vivo genome editing medicines to treat the untreatable, today announced that together with Western University ("Western") it was awarded a grant totaling over CAD$1.8 million from the Genome Canada and Ontario Genomics Genomic Applications Partnership Program (GAPP) to develop a machine learning (ML)-enabled prediction platform for Dualase® genome editors.
The computational platform will be developed in collaboration with a research team led by Dr. David Edgell at Western whose lab discovered Dualase® editors and builds on a longstanding partnership between the Edgell lab and Specific. The Dualase® genome editing platform enables precise, efficient and programmable repair of small and large DNA sequences, offering broad therapeutic potential. Uniquely, its two-site mechanism precisely targets and collapses toxic DNA repeat expansions with no off-target effects detected. The company's lead preclinical program targets the toxic DNA repeat expansion in C9ORF72 amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), the most common genetic cause of terminal ALS with no disease-modifying therapies available.
The ML prediction platform will integrate large-scale genomic datasets, structural modeling, and experimental training data to develop predictive algorithms capable of rapidly identifying potent and highly specific Dualase® editors for virtually any new therapeutic target. This will accelerate lead optimization beyond ALS to create new drug candidates for patients with high morbidity and mortality genetic diseases, including other repeat expansion diseases like Huntington's Disease.
"This funding supports a natural evolution of the Dualase® platform," said Dr. Brent Stead, CEO of Specific. "By integrating machine learning into our development pipeline, we aim to dramatically accelerate the discovery of proprietary Dualase® editors as precision genetic medicines. This approach allows us to begin lab experiments in disease models with potent molecules informed by near instant computational design, shortening development timelines internally or together with partners. As we are focused on moving our lead program into the clinic for ALS patients, the development of this ML tool in parallel strengthens our already powerful genome editing platform in other diseases."
"Machine learning can be a powerful tool in genome engineering," said Edgell. "This program will allow us to integrate computational prediction with experimental validation to rapidly identify editors with optimal characteristics enabling translational research with our partners at Specific."
About Specific Biologics
Specific Biologics is a venture-backed biotechnology company developing Dualase®, an industry-leading genome editing platform for precise, efficient, and programmable in vivo genome editing, with an initial therapeutic focus on the precise collapse of pathogenic DNA repeat expansions including in the C9ORF72 gene, the most frequent genetic cause of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). The unique Dualase® two-site mechanism enables the seamless removal, repair, or insertion of both small and large DNA sequences, offering broad therapeutic potential, coupled with single AAV or all-RNA delivery. Dualase® achieves best-in-class accurate editing efficiency with undetectable off-target effects as demonstrated in preclinical cell and animal models at diverse targets and indications.
For more information, visit www.specificbiologics.com or follow Specific Biologics Inc. on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/specific-biologics
SOURCE Specific Biologics Inc.
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