Released: Tuesday 24th April 2018

Synpromics awarded Innovate UK grant to evaluate its inducible promoter platform in collaboration with Lonza Pharma & Biotech

Edinburgh, UK, 23rd April 2018 / Sciad Newswire / Synpromics Ltd, the leader in gene control, announces a partnership with Lonza Pharma & Biotech to further develop its inducible promoter system and improve manufacturing of biopharmaceuticals. The 18-month project has been made possible through the award of a £235,000 grant, part of the medicines manufacturing competition from Innovate UK.

One of the current challenges in the biotech industry is the production of certain biological drugs that can be toxic to host producer cell lines, thereby inhibiting bioproduction. To overcome this challenge, Synpromics has employed its proprietary technology to develop new synthetic inducible/repressible cell-systems that are driven by non-toxic physiological or chemical stimulus, making them ideal for improving productivity and minimising costs during bioproduction. The new systems demonstrate exquisite control of gene expression and offer significant advantages over currently available systems as they are small, can be driven from one plasmid, can incorporate multiple expression cassettes and offer fine-tuning of gene expression.

On launching this key partnership, Dr Michael Roberts, Founder & CSO of Synpromics, commented, “Our primary goal in the first 18 months of this programme will be to validate and comprehensively understand the features and benefits of the Synpromics inducible promoter platform in an industrial setting, using well characterised model proteins. Once validated in an industrially relevant situation, the system will be further tested and incorporated into process development for biomanufacturing novel therapeutic constructs.” He added, “Through this important collaboration, we aim to increase overall flexibility in bioproduction using Synpromics’ inducible promoter platform, and ultimately provide the broader biopharmaceutical industry with powerful new tools to increase the number and type of proteins that can be produced from CHO cells.”

“As part of Lonza Pharma & Biotech's strategy to drive next-generation biomanufacturing, we will be supporting Synpromics in testing and validating their inducible promoter in our established GS expression system®,” said Keith Hutchison, SVP Research & Development at Lonza Pharma & Biotech. He added: “This award is a perfect example of how Innovate UK is encouraging companies to come together to bring new ideas to market.”

This collaboration is the latest in a series of advantageous partnerships for Synpromics, furthering its growth and development as a company, and distinguishing Synpromics as an industry leader in the cell and gene therapy, and bioprocessing sectors.

Ends
For further information, contact:
Corporate Contact:
Dr David Venables, CEO Synpromics Ltd

T: +44 (0)7825 323439

E: David.Venables@synpromics.com
PR Contact:
Deborah Cockerill / Emma Pickup / Juliette Craggs
Sciad Communications Ltd

T: +44 (0)20 7470 8801

E: synpromics@sciad.com

Notes to Editors

About Synpromics
Synpromics is the leader in gene control, improving human health by enabling safer, more effective cell and gene medicines through proprietary genomics, bioinformatics and intelligent data-driven design. The company has developed PromPT®, its multi- dimensional bioinformatics database that enables product-specific promoter design and selection empowering the next generation of cell and gene based medicines and bioprocessing applications. The company operates in a diverse range of fields, including broad applications in cell and gene based medicine, biologics manufacturing and viral vector bioprocessing. Current partners include Audentes, Biomarin, uniQure, AGTC, Solid Bio, Homology Medicines Inc, Adverum, GE Healthcare and Sartorius-Stedim Cellca, as well as numerous undisclosed partners in the pharmaceutical sector.

About Synthetic Promoters
Promoters are the natural switches that control the expression of genes into proteins, and are responsible for decoding the genome. Naturally occurring promoters have evolved for biological functions but have limitations when utilised in industrial or therapeutic applications. Synthetic promoters with DNA sequences not found in nature are designed to better regulate gene activity and precisely control protein production. Synpromics creates highly specific promoters designed to drive gene expression at the desired level and specificity in any cell type, tissue or environmental condition. Each synthetic promoter represents a novel invention and thus can be patented. For more information visit www.synpromics.com

About Lonza Pharma & Biotech
Lonza Pharma & Biotech provides contract development and manufacturing services that enable pharma and biotech companies to bring medicines to patients in need. From the building blocks of life to the final drug product, Lonza creates solutions to simplify the outsourcing experience and provide a reliable outcome. The company’s extensive track record includes the commercialization of pioneering therapies and manufacturing of a wide variety of biological and chemical drugs. Lonza Pharma & Biotech continuously invests to solve not just the current, but also the future challenges. More information is available on pharma.lonza.com.