Waltham-bound Stoke Therapeutics receives biosafety permit 

Stoke Therapeutics, a biotechnology company developing medicines for genetic diseases, received a permit to conduct recombinant DNA research in Waltham from the city’s Biosafety Committee at its meeting on Sept. 15. 

The company’s technology is designed to help healthy copies of genes produce more of the proteins the body needs.

Currently based in Bedford, Stoke announced plans in January to move its headquarters to a 98,500-square-foot facility at 245 Fifth Ave. in Waltham later this year, doubling its size. Stoke has about 250 employees and will join Waltham’s growing life sciences sector.

The permit allows Stoke to conduct laboratory research involving recombinant DNA, genetic material altered or combined in a laboratory. The work is subject to biosafety requirements and committee oversight.

The company’s leading drug candidate, zorevunersen, is being developed to treat Dravet syndrome, a severe genetic form of epilepsy. Stoke is also developing treatments for other genetic disorders, including a condition causing progressive vision loss.