Design Therapeutics Announces FDA Clearance of Investigational New Drug Application for First GeneTAC™ Molecule for Friedreich Ataxia

CARLSBAD, Calif., Feb. 28, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Design Therapeutics, Inc. (Nasdaq: DSGN), a biotechnology company developing treatments for degenerative genetic disorders, today announced that its Investigational New Drug Application (IND) for its lead candidate, DT-216, for the treatment of Friedreich ataxia (FA), was cleared by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The company is preparing to initiate a Phase 1 clinical trial of DT-216 to assess the safety, tolerability, pharmacokinetics, and frataxin (FXN) levels in patients with FA. Study enrollment is expected to begin in the coming weeks.

Accurate and simple FXN-GAA repeats (Friedreich ataxia loci) estimation by long read targeted sequencing.

Pooja Sharma, Bharathram Uppilli, Istaq Ahmad, Shweta Sahni, Mohammed Faruq; bioRxiv 2022.02.24.481841; doi:10.1101/2022.02.24.481841 

 We describe for the first time a method of long read sequencing wherein we utilized approach of long range targeted amplification of FXN-GAA repeats and sequencing on oxford MinION platform. We were able to achieve the successful amplification of GAA repeats ranging from 180-1200 at 250x coverage. The total throughput achievable for 96 samples can be less than 24 hours on one flow cell as per our protocol and is scale-able and deploy-able at clinical day to sequencing.