Bayer's LifeScience Center has selected Basel- and Cambridge, Massachusetts-based CRISPR Therapeutics to be its first investment. The newly established strategic innovation unit, which reports directly to Bayer management in Leverkusen, Germany, is forming a 50-50 joint venture with CRISPR to develop systemic in vivo therapies for blood disorders, blindness and congenital heart disease. Bayer will provide at least $300 million in research and development funding to the endeavor over the next five years. It is also acquiring a minority stake in the gene editing specialist for an additional $35 million. Know-how derived from the collaboration's efforts using the CRISPR-Cas9 endonuclease system outside of the three disease areas, including target delivery technologies, will exclusively be made available to CRISPR Therapeutics for human use and to Bayer for non-human uses such as agricultural applications. The joint venture will be based in London with operations in Cambridge. Last October, Boston-based Vertex paid $105 million up front, including a $30 equity investment, to set up a research collaboration with CRISPR that includes programs aimed at mutations and genes known to cause and contribute to cystic fibrosis and sickle cell disease. In January 2015, fellow gene editing specialist Intellia Therapeutics, also in Cambridge, partnered with Basel-based Novartis to engineer chimeric antigen receptor T (CAR-T) cells and hematopoietic stem cells using gene editing, marking the first biotech-pharma deal for a CRISPR-Cas9 technology.