Scribe

Approach

Scribe Therapeutics is focused on engineering the most advanced platform for CRISPR-based genetic medicine.

We partnered with the company to help unveil its vision for highly efficient and specific in vivo genome modification and evangelize its mission to rewrite the story of disease.

Since launching out of UC Berkeley’s Doudna Lab, Oakes Lab, and the Innovative Genomics Institute in late 2018, Scribe utilized an initial $20 million Series A round of funding from Andreessen Horowitz and additional investors to further develop a custom platform of gene editing and delivery technologies that will revolutionize genetic medicine.

Scribe was founded by leading genome and molecular engineers Benjamin Oakes, Brett Staahl, David Savage, and CRISPR co-inventor and 2020 Nobel Laureate Jennifer Doudna to move beyond the issues of safety, delivery, poor editing outcomes, and an uncertain intellectual property landscape that limit current CRISPR technology.

Our scope was to support all aspects of strategic communications including blueprint positioning and messaging, clarify the brand and website, establish and drive social media and content, and deploy a launch media campaign and beyond to explain:

• • The company’s vision of creating best-in-class medicines to permanently treat the underlying causes of disease
  • The founders’ unique ability and motivation to develop custom engineered enzymes and delivery modalities as part of a proprietary, evergreen platform for CRISPR-based genetic medicine
  • Scribe’s leadership in enabling the biopharma industry to shift from a slow discovery-based approach to therapeutics to fully industrialized, engineered medicine

Timing

Based on a deep and realistic understanding of the industry, timing, and possibility, we issued two press releases – the launch + Series A announcement and a partnership announcement with Biogen to tackle ALS – one day prior to the 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry announcement.

Through our work with CRISPR pioneer and Scribe co-founder Jennifer Doudna, the rationale was that it was only a matter of time before CRISPR won the award, so perhaps this might be the year?

The calculated gamble worked. Jennifer Doudna received the award with her collaborator Emmanuelle Charpentier the following day.

The combination of multiple strong launch elements – a stellar leadership team, breakthrough science, the Series A and industry partnership, and of course Doudna’s Nobel Prize win – allowed us to deploy a clear and compelling narrative and secure significant tier 1 business and trade media coverage that cemented Scribe as the “hottest” CRISPR company.

Impact

The media coverage of Scribe’s launch engaged more than 422 million online readers and garnered 435,000 unique views from a mix of business and trade industry audiences.

Tier 1 outlets such as Forbes, Reuters, and the San Francisco Business Times published features on the company’s potential to revolutionize human therapeutics, while Nature Biotechnology, TechCrunch, Endpoints News, Xconomy, and Chemical & Engineering News represented Scribe’s standout position among genome editing companies.

The positive tone and favorability of articles underscored Scribe as the only team that could move beyond the current limitations of CRISPR that all others continue to face.

Our specially built framework of branding, communication, and media strategies enabled Scribe to unveil its fully integrated platform of genome editing tools to key industry stakeholders and immediately establish itself as the partner of choice for biopharma companies.

The complementary website launch and social media engagement campaigns expanded Scribe’s audience by 5x, consistently amplified company announcements, and driving thousands of social media impressions and page visits monthly.

The Scribe leadership team continues to be recognized nationally as the next generation of leaders driving CRISPR innovation and the future of genetic medicine forward, including BioSpace, MIT Technology Review’s Innovators Under 35, the San Francisco Business Times 40 under 40, and marquee business and trade events such as STAT Summit and CRISPR 2.0.

In overcoming bottlenecks that have for years blocked therapeutics from moving forward to the clinic, Scribe’s custom designed and honed technologies and molecules promises to widen access to crucial treatments and improve the economics of drug development.

Thermal is proud to continue to support Scribe as the company engineers the future of genetics medicine.