Synpromics Announces Collaboration with Avalanche Biotechnologies

Edinburgh, UK, 17th December 2015 / Sciad Newswire / Synpromics Ltd, a leading synthetic biology company, is pleased to announce a collaboration with Avalanche Biotechnologies Inc. (Nasdaq: AAVL), a gene therapy company committed to improving or preserving the sight of people with serious eye diseases with an unmet medical need.

Synpromics will develop synthetic promoters for use with Avalanche’s Ocular BioFactory™ platform technology. Synpromics’ technology creates highly specific 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.

Dr David Venables, CEO of Synpromics, commented, “This is our fourth collaboration in the field of gene therapy and further validation of the wide applicability of our platform.  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.”

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Notes for Editors

For further enquirires please contact:

Synpromics PR Contact:

Deborah Cockerill
Sciad Communications
Tel: +44(0)7930 317729
deborah@sciad.com

Synpromics Corporate Contact:

Dr David Venables
Chief Executive Officer
Synpromics Ltd
Tel: +44 (0)7825 323439
david.venables@synpromics.com

About Synpromics

Synpromics is a privately backed synthetic biology company, based in Edinburgh, UK, focused on commercialising its proprietary technology in the emerging field of synthetic biology. In August 2015, Synpromics announced a £2.1million investment round led by Calculus Capital, a specialist in Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) funds.

Synpromics’ proprietary, patent pending, technology for the design and development of synthetic promoters gives biological researchers, developers and manufacturers unprecedented control of gene expression through the ability to create a comprehensive portfolio of man-made promoters, designed to regulate genes in a highly specific manner. These promoters have wide applicability across the biotechnology industry and, specifically in gene therapy products, enable the controlled expression of the gene of interest only in the target cell type and at the desired strength. Synpromics is also working on several other fields of use, including biotherapeutic protein production; DNA vaccines; enhanced functionality of cell therapies; improved efficiencies in industrial bioprocesses.

About Gene Therapy and Adeno-Associated Virus (AAV)

Gene therapy is the introduction of genetic material into a patient’s cells to replace missing genes, compensate for abnormal genes or make a beneficial protein. Genes are typically delivered into the cell using a carrier known as a vector.

Viruses are often used as vectors because they can effectively deliver a new gene by infecting a cell. Adeno-Associated Virus (AAV) is a small virus which infects human cells but does not cause disease. The ability of AAV to infect both dividing and non-dividing cells, together with its inability to replicate on its own and that it is unlikely to spread within the body, make it suitable for gene therapy applications.

AAV-based vectors have been found to affect long-term therapeutic protein expression in humans which can result in long-lasting treatment for patients.