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Basecamp Research, a British biotech startup, is accelerating its mission to develop programmable genetic medicines by expanding both its leadership and technical capabilities. The company recently appointed gene therapy expert Dr. John Finn as Chief Scientific Officer. He will be based at Basecamp’s newly established office and laboratory in Cambridge, Massachusetts, joined by key team members in commercial and intellectual property roles. Finn previously worked at Tome Biosciences and brings a focus on solving one of gene therapy’s biggest challenges: efficiently inserting large segments of DNA, such as entire healthy genes, into precise genome locations.
To achieve this, Finn plans to use large serine recombinases (LSRs), a class of enzymes smaller than CRISPR that are specially adapted for integrating large DNA fragments directly into the genome without relying on the cell’s natural repair machinery. This ability to perform complete edits independently makes LSRs more consistent across different cell types—a key advantage in developing reliable gene therapies.
Basecamp is also strengthening its AI capabilities with the launch of a new Nvidia GPU-powered supercomputer cluster in the UK, one of the country’s largest industrial systems. This computing power will be used to train advanced AI models capable of simulating biological processes and designing novel genetic therapies. Co-founder Dr. Oliver Vince emphasized that these tools could eventually enable the rapid, low-cost development of custom therapies tailored to individual patients.
Supporting these efforts is Basecamp’s expansive biodiversity database, built through partnerships in 25 countries and considered the world’s largest. By combining this genetic data with AI and cutting-edge tools like LSRs, Basecamp aims to push the boundaries of synthetic biology—from designing individual enzymes to potentially creating entire genomes and organisms.
