Synpromics Collaborates on Gene Therapies

Synpromics announced a collaboration on Dec. 17, 2015 with Avalanche Biotechnologies, a gene therapy company developing proteins for eye diseases. Synpromics will develop synthetic promoters for use with Avalanche’s Ocular BioFactory platform technology. The week prior, Synpromics announced a broad collaboration with Applied Genetic Technologies Corporation, which is also developing gene therapy for eye diseases.

Synpromics' technology creates highly specific, synthetic promoters that control gene expression. These promoters are designed to be specific to the target cell type and aim to enable a precise level of control of gene expression. Avalanches’ Ocular BioFactory platform is “designed to treat the cause of ophthalmic diseases by enabling patients' own cells to express a therapeutic protein for a sustained period of time. We use an adeno-associated virus (AAV) as a vector to deliver and express, or transduce, a functional gene to the cells of the eye to promote continuous protein production,” the company’s website explains.

“Avalanche Biotechnologies is developing next-generation gene therapy technologies to treat eye diseases and we believe that Synpromics’ technology has the potential to support the development of these next generation therapeutics,” said David Venables, CEO of Synpromics, in a press release.

On Dec. 9, 2015, Synpromics and Applied Genetic Technologies Corporation, a biotechnology company conducting human clinical trials of AAV-based gene therapies for the treatment of rare eye diseases, announced a broad, multi-target collaboration agreement. As part of the collaboration, Synpromics’ proprietary technology will be used to develop and optimize synthetic gene-expression promoters for multiple cell types that will be used in the development of new gene therapy candidates.

“Our proprietary synthetic promoter technology, combined with AGTC’s expertise in development and manufacturing, has significant potential to advance enhanced gene therapy product development across a broad range of therapeutic targets,” said Venables in a press release.

Source: Synpromics