Google's parent company, Alphabet, is now pouring funds into a start-up wants to gene-edit heart disease out of existence using a one-time injection.
Verve Therapeutics hopes to leverage its CEO's discovery of a gene he believes is linked to lower heart disease risks to 'fix' the DNA of people at high risk of heart disease.
And the company plans to use CRISPR - the costly, controversial gene editing tool used by Chinese scientists to rid twin girls of HIV in the womb - to accomplish it.
Verve plans to inject people with CRISPR carrying a copy of the protective gene, in theory cutting their heart disease risks by up to 80 percent.
It's a bold and novel plan, but one that could do more to widen already-gaping disparities in heart disease or tackle basic risks like obesity.
Google's parent company, Apple, is helping to fund Verve Therapeutics, a start-up that wants to make a single gene-editing injection to protect people against heart disease
One in four deaths in the US each year are due to heart disease.
It remains the leading cause of death, costing American taxpayers $200 billion a year.
Now, Google's parent company Alphabet, is throwing some private money at deadliest disease in the country.
Alphabet got into the venture capital and health technology games through GV and Verily, respectively, NBC reported.
GV invests in companies, startups and other ventures that its umbrella company sees potential in, while Verily, a now-independent company that got its start in Alphabet's incubator, tackles a diverse smattering of health research projects.
Verily rounded up an additional $1 billion in external funding last year, some of which will go to its partnership with Verve, while GV added the better part of another $60 million in funding to the pot shared by Verily and Verve last week.
To Verve's efforts, Verily plans to add its research on nanoparticles, which it believes will provide the best system by which to deliver Verve's gene-editing vaccine.
Nanoparticles are still in their early days, but because their small size allows them to enter hard-to-access tissues undetected by the immune system and deliver extended release treatments there.
Now, Verily wants to use them to help Verve deploy CRISPR to the DNA of heart disease-prone
