Here’s the latest company planning for gene-edited babies
Harrinton’s company was incorporated in Delaware in May 2025, under the name Preventive Medicine PBC. As a public utility company, it is organized to put its public mission before profits. “If our research shows [heritable genome editing] cannot be carried out safely, this conclusion is equally valuable to the scientific community and society,” Harrington wrote in his message.
Harrington is a co-founder of Mammoth Biosciences, a gene-editing company that develops drugs for adults, and remains a board member there.
In recent months, Preventive has sought endorsements from leading figures in the genome editing field, but according to its article, it has only gotten one: that of Paula Amato, a fertility doctor at the University of Oregon Health Sciences, who said she had agreed to serve as an advisor to the company.
Amato is a member of a U.S. team that has been conducting embryo editing research in the country since 2017, and she has promoted the technology as a way to increase IVF success. This could be the case if editing could correct abnormal embryos, making them more available to attempt to create a pregnancy.
It is still unclear where Preventive’s funding comes from. Harrington said the $30 million was raised from “private funders who share our commitment to pursuing this research responsibly.” But he declined to identify any investors other than SciFounders, a venture capital firm he runs with personal and business partner Matt Krisiloff, CEO of biotech company Conception, which aims to create human eggs from stem cells.
It’s yet another technology that could change reproduction, if it works. Krisiloff is listed as a member of the founding team of Preventive.
The idea of edited babies has received increasing attention from crypto industry figures. These include Brian Armstrong, the billionaire founder of Coinbase, who hosted a series of off-the-record dinners to discuss technology (which Harrington attended). Armstrong has previously argued that “the time is right” for a start-up in the region.
