Asklepios Biopharmaceutical Inc. (Askbio) formed Actus Therapeutics Inc., another in its string of so-called spinout special purpose entities, or SPEs, to pursue therapies for rare genetic diseases, beginning with Pompe disease. Chapel Hill, N.C.-based Actus plans to tap Askbio's prowess in rare diseases, its platform of double-strand adeno-associated virus vectors (AAV) and its manufacturing capabilities – in combination with technology licensed from the lab of Dwight Koeberl, professor of pediatrics and a medical genetics specialist at Duke University – to differentiate its approach in gene therapy.