Deep Dive #17: Circular RNA

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Alix Ventures: Supporting Early Stage Life Science Startups Engineering Biology to Drive Radical Advances in Human Health

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Overview

Circular RNAs are emerging as novel regulators of gene expression in various biological processes. Circular RNA was first discovered in pathogens in 1976 and originally considered a result of splicing errors. The last decade of scientific advancements within RNA sequencing and specialized computational pipelines led to a surge of research in circRNA. 

This wave of research paired with the most recent pandemic found large sums of government & institutional funding backing RNA-based solutions from lab tools to vaccines. Many limitations arose from linear-RNA-based counterparts in which many startups turned to circRNA solutions. The market is now beginning to see the benefits of circRNA solutions with the most disruptive companies just reaching the series B level of funding. However, circRNAs ubiquity across species and their rich functions in cells, protein sponging, scaffolding, mRNA regulation, and more is leading to a promising field with important implications in medical applications including circRNA vaccines and gene therapy.