Synpromics announces collaboration with Sartorius Stedim Cellca to develop improved biologicals manufacturing process using synthetic promoters

Edinburgh, UK, 5th December 2016 / Sciad Newswire / Synpromics Ltd, the leading synthetic promoter and gene control company, is pleased to announce a collaboration with Sartorius Stedim Cellca (Cellca) to evaluate and test its customised synthetic promoters with Sartorius’ proprietary mammalian production cell platform. The goal of the programme is to reduce timelines and increase yields in the development of stable cell lines for the production of biopharmaceuticals.

Cellca has developed the Cellca CHO Expression Platform, an efficient system for the production of biologicals using CHO (Chinese Hamster Ovary) cells consisting of a proprietary cell line, growth medium, expression cassettes and fed-batch process. Cellca has already successfully completed more than 40 customer projects using its system. Synpromics has developed a unique panel of CHO specific synthetic promoters, using its proprietary PromPT™ platform, designed and selected for optimised expression of recombinant proteins.

The use of these synthetic promoters is expected to result in shorter cell line development timelines and significantly enhanced yields of biological products. 

Dr David Venables, CEO of Synpromics, commented, “The majority of recombinant proteins, including monoclonal antibodies, are produced using the CHO system. We believe that the combination of Cellca’s CHO bioprocessing platform with Synpromics’ synthetic promoters will provide a much more efficient production system. We’re aiming for significantly higher levels of product being achieved which will increase capacity while reducing production costs.”

Dr. Christoph Zehe, Head of Technology Development of Cellca, added, “We are delighted to be working with Synpromics on this exciting project. We believe it will offer significant benefit to our clients in being able to provide a superior production system for biological products.”

ENDS

For further enquiries, please contact:

PR Contact:
 Deborah Cockerill
Sciad Communications Ltd
T: +44 (0)7930 317729
E: deborah@sciad.com

Corporate Contact:
 Dr David Venables, CEO
Synpromics Ltd
T: +44 (0)7825 323439
E: david.venables@synpromics.com 

Notes for Editors

About Synpromics
Synpromics is a private company focused on commercialising its proprietary technology in the emerging field of synthetic biology by developing customised synthetic promoters. In August 2015, Synpromics announced a £2.1million investment round led by Calculus Capital, a specialist in Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) funds. The company has partnership deals with a number of gene therapy companies including AGTC, Adverum, and uniQure.

Synpromics technology gives biological researchers, developers and manufacturers unprecedented control of gene expression through the ability to create a comprehensive portfolio of man-made DNA sequences. This is a highly disruptive technology as most of the currently used promoters are natural, viral or gene specific promoters. Synpromics’ products comprise patented synthetic promoters that are designed to regulate genes in a highly specific manner. For more information see http://www.synpromics.com/.

About Sartorius Stedim Cellca
Sartorius Stedim Cellca is a leading provider of cell line development and upstream process development services for large-scale protein production of biopharmaceuticals in mammalian (CHO) cells. For this purpose, Cellca has devised a unique cost effective reliable technology platform consistently delivering well characterised stable research clones from DNA to Research Cell Bank in 4-6 months with titres upwards of 3 g/L in an easily scalable fed-batch process. Cellca has a successful track record with more than 40 successfully completed customer projects. Founded in 2005 Cellca was acquired by Sartorius Stedim Biotech in 2015 and is located in Laupheim, Germany. More information on http://www.cellca.de/.