As experienced investors know, it takes some patience to engage with genomics stocks. That’s just the lay of the land with one of the more volatile, yet promising, growth-rich corners of the healthcare sector.
Exercising that patience can be made easier when accounting for the catalyst-rich story that is the genomics space and by embracing the ARK Genomic Revolution Multi-Sector Fund (CBOE: ARKG). The actively managed ARKG has a history of being nimble and embracing new concepts in the genomics industry. Consider the example of prime editing.
“Prime editing (PE), the latest gene editing technology to emerge from Dr. David Liu’s labs at the Broad Institute, Harvard University, and Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI), adds new functionality to the CRISPR-Cas9 protein,” according to ARK Invest research.
That’s relevant to ARKG investors because CRISPR is one of the genomics sub-segments the fund provides exposure to. Prime editing could have applications and intersections with myriad ARKG components.
“In living cells, PE can copy parts of a DNA sequence into a targeted site without cutting the DNA’s double-strand, or double helix,” adds ARK. “Double-strand DNA breaks can cause uncontrolled “indels”, insertions and deletions, as well as cell changes like translocations, p53 activation, chromothripsis, and other deletions at the target site. Like base editing, its predecessor, PE avoids these undesired outcomes.”
While prime editing is still in its formative stages, if it matures on par with or exceeds expectations, it could bring about positive outcomes for patients with an array of conditions. According to Integrated DNA Technologies, prime editing could be a force for positive change in treating albinism, cystic fibrosis, Down syndrome, Duchenne muscular dystrophy, Rett syndrome, and Tourette syndrome, among many others.
On that note, more labs are embracing prime editing, and more researchers are examining the field. Combine all those factors and there’s potentially alluring prime editing runway with ARK’s ARKG.
“According to our research, more than 1,000 labs have adopted PE technology and published more than 50 research publications and preprints involving a wide range of organisms, including adult mammals. Scientists at the Hubrecht Institute, UMC Utrecht, and the Oncode Institute, for example, published that, using PE in cultured human stem cells, they had corrected the mutations that cause cystic fibrosis,” adds ARKG’s issuer.
ARKG is up 32.14% over the past 12 months.
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The opinions and forecasts expressed herein are solely those of Tom Lydon, and may not actually come to pass. Information on this site should not be used or construed as an offer to sell, a solicitation of an offer to buy, or a recommendation for any product.