Description of the Business, Organization, and Liquidity	3 Months Ended
Mar. 31, 2022
Organization, Consolidation and Presentation of Financial Statements [Abstract]
Description of the Business, Organization, and Liquidity	1. Description of the Business, Organization, and Liquidity Business and Organization Caribou Biosciences, Inc. (the “Company” or “we”) is a clinical-stage CRISPR genome-editing biopharmaceutical company dedicated to developing innovative, transformative therapies for patients with devastating diseases. CRISPR is an acronym for Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats. Our novel CRISPR platform, CRISPR hybrid RNA-DNA (“chRDNA,” pronounced “chardonnay”), enables high genome-editing precision to develop cell therapies that are specifically engineered to target cancer and are armored for enhanced persistence. We are advancing a pipeline of allogeneic, or off-the-shelf, chimeric antigen receptor (“CAR”)-T (“CAR-T”) and CAR-natural killer (“CAR-NK”) cell therapies for the treatment of patients with hematologic malignancies and solid tumors. We incorporated in October 2011 as a Delaware corporation and are headquartered in Berkeley, California. We have four wholly owned subsidiaries: Antler Holdco, LLC, incorporated in Delaware in April 2019; Microbe Holdco, LLC, incorporated in Delaware in June 2020; Arboreal Holdco, LLC, incorporated in Delaware in November 2020; and Biloba Holdco, LLC, incorporated in Delaware in April 2021. Our wholly owned subsidiaries hold interests in our equity investments and do not have operating activities. Liquidity We have incurred net losses and negative cash flows from operations since our inception and we had an accumulated deficit of $116.9 million as of March 31, 2022. During the three months ended March 31, 2022, we incurred a net loss of $19.1 million and used $21.7 million of cash in operating activities. We expect to continue to incur substantial losses, and our ability to achieve and sustain profitability will depend on the successful development, approval, and commercialization of our product candidates and on our achievement of sufficient revenue to support our cost structure. We may never achieve profitability and, unless and until we do, we will need to continue to raise additional capital. Our management expects that existing cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities of $390.8 million as of March 31, 2022, will be sufficient to fund our current operating plan for at least the next 12 months from the date of issuance of our condensed consolidated financial statements.

Description of the Business, Organization, and Liquidity

3 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2022

Organization, Consolidation and Presentation of Financial Statements [Abstract]

Description of the Business, Organization, and Liquidity

1. Description of the Business, Organization, and Liquidity

Business and Organization

Caribou Biosciences, Inc. (the “Company” or “we”) is a clinical-stage CRISPR genome-editing biopharmaceutical company dedicated to developing innovative, transformative therapies for patients with devastating diseases. CRISPR is an acronym for Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats. Our novel CRISPR platform, CRISPR hybrid RNA-DNA (“chRDNA,” pronounced “chardonnay”), enables high genome-editing precision to develop cell therapies that are specifically engineered to target cancer and are armored for enhanced persistence. We are advancing a pipeline of allogeneic, or off-the-shelf, chimeric antigen receptor (“CAR”)-T (“CAR-T”) and CAR-natural killer (“CAR-NK”) cell therapies for the treatment of patients with hematologic malignancies and solid tumors.

We incorporated in October 2011 as a Delaware corporation and are headquartered in Berkeley, California. We have four wholly owned subsidiaries: Antler Holdco, LLC, incorporated in Delaware in April 2019; Microbe Holdco, LLC, incorporated in Delaware in June 2020; Arboreal Holdco, LLC, incorporated in Delaware in November 2020; and Biloba Holdco, LLC, incorporated in Delaware in April 2021. Our wholly owned subsidiaries hold interests in our equity investments and do not have operating activities.

Liquidity

We have incurred net losses and negative cash flows from operations since our inception and we had an accumulated deficit of $116.9 million as of March 31, 2022. During the three months ended March 31, 2022, we incurred a net loss of $19.1 million and used $21.7 million of cash in operating activities. We expect to continue to incur substantial losses, and our ability to achieve and sustain profitability will depend on the successful development, approval, and commercialization of our product candidates and on our achievement of sufficient revenue to support our cost structure. We may never achieve profitability and, unless and until we do, we will need to continue to raise additional capital. Our management expects that existing cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities of $390.8 million as of March 31, 2022, will be sufficient to fund our current operating plan for at least the next 12 months from the date of issuance of our condensed consolidated financial statements.