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Hudson River’s CRISPR-Protoplasts, Polari Labs’ Queer Biotech, Buy Cortical Labs' biocomputer, Based cell-based pet food?, Wanna make a virus with Generate Biomedicines' Chroma?

Hudson River’s CRISPR-Protoplasts

Protoplasts are plant cells that lack a cell wall. When editing other plant tissues, only surface cells may come into contact with the reagents, and the cell wall may block large molecules from diffusing evenly. In protoplasts, gene editing is completely uniform, highly efficient (>90% for Hudson), and homogeneous. Their morphology allows for the CRISPR complex to be delivered as an RNP, edit multiple alleles in one go, while keeping the plants non-transgenic (“DNA-free”).

Hudson River built an automated and protoplast-based plant editing platform that generates market-ready plants in only 24 months. One of their pieces of IP is a method for encapsulating individual protoplasts in hydrogel microcapsules made of BSA and WPH. Post-gene editing, the cells are put there to rebuild their cell walls until becoming a proto-callus. This is then put in solid media appropriate for shooting and rooting. Once a single plant is regenerated, it may be multiplied into many via clonal cropping or seeds.

Clients can either use the Hudson platform to enhance their own crops, or license Hudson’s proprietary crops. Their portfolio includes everything from pest-resistant strawberries to β-carotene-enhanced cauliflowers, pharma-optimized Benthys, and even cut flowers — If you’ve read my last few posts, you can tell I’m dying to know what they do to those… and what other pieces of IP may be behind the wide breadth of crops they may be able to regenerate from protoplasts…

Polari Labs’ Queer Biotech

Over 133 Million people across the UK, US, and Europe have anal sex. That amounts to over 5.3 Billion annual anal sex acts per year, many of which suffer from faecal accidents, or have to come only after douching, a 30-minute procedure that flows water through rectum and can cause gut issues — That’s not only unusual to read, it’s stats that support my Queer Biotech thesis: biotech products that serve the LGBTQ community.

Many of these topics are still taboo, even in the western world. Doctors avoid responsibility by suggesting abstinence altogether, and public funding isn’t enough to provide the answers to simple questions, like what the thrusting rate is during sex, whether peristalsis occurs during anal sex, and how to relax your anus during sex to prevent pain. It’s about time the biotech next-gen solves this.

Respectively, cofounders Henry and Anna previously studied sexually transmitted infection in Oxford, and biomedical engineering at EPFL & MIT. Since they started Polari in 2023, they’ve filed a patent for a $4-dollar, single-use hydrogel ball that anyone engaging in anal sex can insert in their rectum in less than 30 seconds for spontaneous, faecal-free sex. They’ve shown the device to work in ex-vivo models, raised a $500k pre-seed round, and will start distribution via sex-positive and LGBTQ communities later this year.

Ex-vivo experiment results compared with a control: those with a hydrogel show less damage and ‘fecal contamination’

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