Beam Therapeutics lays off staff, adjusts research focus

The gene-editing company Beam Therapeutics on Oct. 19 became the latest biotech firm to announce staff layoffs. It plans to cut 100 employees, or 20% of its workforce. The Cambridge, Massachusetts–based firm also says it will pare back its pipeline. The cost savings from these changes will keep the company going into 2026, according to Beam. Chemist David R. Liu of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard launched Beam in May 2018 —2 years after his lab developed base editors , the firm’s key technology. Base editors deliver a twist on traditional CRISPR-Cas gene editing to make single nucleotide base changes in DNA. In theory, this technology enables the treatment of genetic diseases with more precision and with fewer off-target effects. But despite base editing’s potential, it’s taking time for the technology to yield a clinical product. Beam’s restructuring will pause the development of an in vivo treatment for