---
title: "Google Backs Plan to Use CRISPR to Cure Heart Disease"
description: "Google Ventures has pumped money into Verve Therapeutics, a startup that wants to use CRISPR to create a \"one-and-done\" therapy for heart disease."
date: "2019-05-07"
modified: "2019-05-07"
authors:
  - name: "Kristin Houser"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/kristin"
url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/google-use-crispr-cure-heart-disease"
categories:
  - "Artificial Intelligence"
  - "Google"
tags:
  - "CRISPR"
  - "Google"
  - "heart disease"
  - "the digest"
---

# Google Backs Plan to Use CRISPR to Cure Heart Disease

![Google Ventures has pumped money into Verve Therapeutics, a startup that wants to use CRISPR to create a "one-and-done" therapy for heart disease.](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/google-use-crispr-cure-heart-disease.png>)
*\<em\>Image: Shutterstock/Victor Tangermann\</em\>*

## Big Money

A new biotech startup has a bold plan to use CRISPR to end heart disease — and one of the world's biggest tech companies is ready to help bring it to fruition.

Verve Therapeutics came out of stealth mode on Tuesday with the [announcement](<https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190507005300/en/Verve-Therapeutics-Founded-Protect-Heart-Disease-Launches>) that it'd raised $58.5 million in financing, the majority of which came from GV (formerly Google Ventures), the venture capital arm of Google's parent company Alphabet.

"\[Verve\] has broad potential to address the number one leading cause of death in the world unlike anything we’ve seen before," GV general partner Krishna Yeshwant said in a [news release](<https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190507005300/en/Verve-Therapeutics-Founded-Protect-Heart-Disease-Launches>).

## One-and-Done

Researchers already know that genetics play a [major role](<https://www.nature.com/articles/nrg.2016.160?platform=oscar&draft=collection>) in determining a person's risk of developing heart disease or having a heart attack.

Verve's plan is to use CRISPR to edit the genes of adults with a high genetic risk of heart problems so that they more closely resemble the genes of people with a naturally low risk.

"Poor adherence, costs, side effects, limited access... all these challenges have limited the impact existing heart medications like cholesterol-lowering statins have had," [Sekar Kathiresan](<https://futurism.com/neoscope/genetic-test-risk-heart-attack>), Verve's newly announced future CEO, [told *Reuters*](<https://www.reuters.com/article/us-verve-therapeutics-alphabet/alphabets-gv-leads-funding-in-gene-editing-company-verve-therapeutics-idUSKCN1SD0ZZ>). "With our therapy, we could change the treatment paradigm for heart disease from chronic care, daily pills, or monthly injections to a one-and-done approach."

**READ MORE:** [Alphabet's GV leads funding in gene editing company Verve Therapeutics](<https://www.reuters.com/article/us-verve-therapeutics-alphabet/alphabets-gv-leads-funding-in-gene-editing-company-verve-therapeutics-idUSKCN1SD0ZZ>) \[*Reuters*\]

**More on Kathiresan:** *[A $50 Genetic Test Can Tell How Likely You Are to Have a Heart Attack](<https://futurism.com/neoscope/genetic-test-risk-heart-attack>)*

### Author social links  
[LinkedIn](<https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristinjhouser>)