Good morning. Welcome to Editas Medicine's First Quarter 2020 Conference Call. All participant lines are in a listen only mode. There will be a question and answer session at the end of this call. Please be advised that this call is being recorded at the company's request.
I would now like to turn the call over to Mark Mulliken, Vice President of Finance and Investor Relations at Editas Medicine.
Thank you, operator. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to our Q1 2020 conference call. Earlier this morning, we issued a press release providing our financial results and corporate updates for the Q1 of 2020. A replay of today's call will be available on As a As a reminder, various remarks that we make during this call about the company's future expectations, plans and prospects constitute forward looking statements for the Safe Harbor provisions under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual results may differ materially from those in those indicated by these forward looking statements as a result of various important factors, including those discussed in the Risk Factors section of our most recent Annual Report on Form 10 ks, which is on file with the SEC.
In addition, any forward looking statements represent our views only as of today and should not be relied upon as representing our views as of any subsequent date. Except as required by law, we specifically disclaim any obligation to update or revise any forward looking statements even if our views change. Now, I will turn the call over to our Chief Executive Officer, Cindy Collins.
Thank you, Mark. Good morning and thank you everyone for joining us for our corporate update call for the Q1 of 2020. In addition to Mark, I am joined by Charlie Albright, our Chief Scientific Officer and Michelle Robertson, our Chief Financial Officer. This year has started out quite unlike any other for the world and for our company. The COVID-nineteen outbreak is a challenge unprecedented in modern times.
The safety of our employees, patients and partners is always our first priority, and I want to thank them for their resilience in the face of adversity. We have taken measures consistent with public health policy and guidance to keep them safe while minimizing business disruption. This includes implementing a work from home policy for office based employees while restricting on-site activities to essential lab and manufacturing employees. We are successfully conducting much of our business virtually and our executive team meets frequently to ensure that we continue to advance our business objectives. We have been able to keep our programs largely on track, although the uncertainty does increase the risk to time lines, which will be discussed further on this call.
The situation is unfolding rapidly and we will provide further updates as we gain additional clarity on potential impact. Now I will turn to a review of our business. Since we last spoke in February, we achieved a historic milestone with our lead program EDIT-one hundred and one, the first in vivo CRISPR medicine was administered to a patient in the BRILIENTS clinical trial for the treatment of LCA10. This is a landmark event for science, for medicine and most importantly, for people living with this ocular disease. And it is a significant step delivering on the promise and potential of CRISPR Medicine to transform the lives of patients with devastating genetic diseases.
Charlie will provide additional color on the trial in a few moments. As thrilled as we are to pioneer the first ever in vivo CRISPR medicine, we are equally excited about pioneering differentiated engineered cell medicines for cancer and hemoglobinopathies. We recently initiated IND enabling studies for oncology candidate EDIT-two zero one, an allogeneic healthy donor NK cell medicine for the treatment of solid tumors. Advancing novel treatments for solid tumor cancers, which represent approximately 90% of cases, is a key priority for our company. We expect EDIT-two zero one to be the 1st transformative oncology medicine to emerge from our efforts.
For hemoglobinopathies, we are conducting IND enabling toxicology studies for EDIT-three zero one for the treatment of sickle cell disease. We remain on track to file an IND for a potentially best in class medicine by the end of this year. Finally, before I turn the call over, I am pleased to welcome Claire Carmichael to Editas as Chief Human Resources Officer. Claire joined us in April. She brings deep experience in building biotech organizations and will be instrumental as we continue to grow Editas as the leader in genomic medicine.
Now let me turn the call over to our Chief Scientific Officer, Charlie Albrecht, to discuss our pipeline.
Thanks, Cindy. It's my pleasure to join all of you on the call today. Let's start with in vivo editing medicines, the first pillar of our therapeutic strategy. In early March, along with our partner Allergan, we announced the treatment of the first patients in the Brilliance clinical trial EDIT-one hundred and one to treat LCA10. As a reminder, primary endpoint of Brilliance assesses the safety and tolerability of EDIT-one hundred and one, the secondary endpoints measuring efficacy.
We're pleased to report that based on a review of the 1st 6 weeks of safety data from the first patient, the study has been clear to continue. We plan to complete dosing of the adult low dose cohort and to dose at least 1 patient in the adult mid dose oxygen program is EDIT-one hundred and Following EDIT-one hundred and one, our next in vivo oxygen program is EDIT-one hundred and two for the treatment of Usher syndrome 2A. Preclinical studies support the advancement of EDIT-one hundred and two into IND enabling studies. As part of our strategic alliance with Allergan, we've delivered a data package EDIT-one hundred and two for potential licensing and development. We expect Allergan's decision by the Q3 after which IND enabling studies may begin.
On our 3rd ocular program addresses autosomal dominant retinitis pigmentosa 4 or RP4, a significant unmet medical need. While we've made substantial progress on this medicine, we will delay the declaration of a development candidate to next year due to the need to reprioritize staffing caused by COVID-nineteen. We remain eager to advance this program and to declare a candidate as soon as practical. We also continue to advance our neurology program in collaboration with Aspire and we'll have more to say about our in vivo editing programs later this year. Switching now to engineered cell medicines, the other strategic pillar of our therapeutic strategy.
As Cindy mentioned, EDIT-three zero one, our potentially best in class medicine for hemoglobinopathies remains on track for an IND filing for sickle cell disease this year. Preparatory activity supporting the IND are underway. Site selection will begin shortly, we are planning for an investigator meeting in the Q4. Globin locus is derisked by human genetics since some sickle cell patients with elevated fetal hemoglobin contain mutations in the beta globin locus. In contrast, mutations that elevate fetal hemoglobin in humans are not found in other genetic sites.
In addition, preclinical data shows that EDIT-three zero one induces superior levels of fetal hemoglobin and reconstitutes all blood lineages, including red blood cell precursors. For these reasons, we remain enthusiastic about advancing EDIT-three zero one into the clinic to treat sickle cell disease patients. Finally, moving to oncology, an area of significant and growing investment for our company, we recently initiated IND enabling studies for EDIT-two zero one, an allogeneic NK cell medicine treating solid tumors. We believe that we can apply gene editing to NK cells to develop off the shelf medicines for cancer patients that have no effective therapeutic options available to them today. EDIT-two hundred is the first of these medicines that we hope will extend and dramatically improve the lives of these patients.
We continue to make excellent progress on our partner to produce NK cells with multiple genetic changes from induced pluripotent stem cell. We'll have more to say about these efforts later in the year. Now I will turn the call over to our Chief Financial Officer, Michelle Robertson.
Thanks, Charlie. I'm pleased to join you on the call today to present the company's latest financial results. Our cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities decreased $42,000,000 to $415,000,000 as of March 31, 2020 from $457,000,000 as of December 31, 2019. Our uses of cash in the quarter totaled $58,000,000 Cash operating expenses of $56,000,000 excludes stock based compensation and depreciation and include changes in working capital. After adjusting for non recurring cash payments in Q1, our cash operating expenses were approximately $40,000,000 Capital expenditures in the quarter totaled $2,000,000 We grew the size of our organization by approximately 10%, increasing to 213 full time employees from 195 employees at the end of 2019.
Editas is in a strong financial position with more than 24 months of runway to fund the business. Further, we remain committed to diligently managing our expenses in order to grow the company while maintaining the strength of our balance sheet. And with that, I will hand it back to Cindy.
Thank you, Michelle. The beginning of this year brought an unprecedented global crisis that has changed the way Editas and every other company operates. We are confident that our strong leadership, dedicated employees and trusted partnerships will persevere during these difficult times. The healthcare and biotechnology community has always emphasized progress and development under strenuous circumstances, and I am confident that together we will overcome this global pandemic. As a company, we remain incredibly excited about the times ahead.
Editas programs have the potential to revolutionize the treatment of genetic blindness, cancer, sickle cell disease and neurological conditions. Earlier this year, we treated the 1st patient ever with an in vivo CRISPR gene editing medicine, but our work is only getting started. We are working to further extend the reach of gene editing as we tackle new indications, explore new targets and expand our platform to deliver on the promise of CRISPR technology. We look forward to continuing to forge this journey in partnership with the broader community of patients, clinicians, employees and investors. We thank all of you for your continued interest and support.
With that, we will open up the call for Q and A. Operator?
Thank you. And I'm not showing any questions at this time.
Great. So with that, we thank you all for participating in today's call and for your support as we work to bring transformative new medicines to patients. Take care and be safe.
Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's presentation. Thank you once again for your participation. You may now disconnect.