Innovate UK grants £1million to gene therapy trio
6 May 2024
Innovate UK has awarded a grant of more than £1 million to a trio of organisations working together on ‘life-changing’ gene therapies.
The Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult (CGT Catapult), enzymatic DNA production pioneer Touchlight and preclinical stage biotechnology firm Complement Therapeutics received the money as part of the Innovative Technologies: Nucleic Acid Medicines Manufacture competition.
Their two year project combines their expertise in gene therapy development and manufacturing with the aim of developing an innovative recombinant adeno-associated virus (rAAV) production process. The aim is to achieve lower manufacturing costs and increased yields without undermining quality levels.
CGT Catapult chief executive Matthew Durdy said: “Building on Touchlight’s pioneering dbDNA platform and Complement Therapeutics’ expertise in gene therapies, we hope to develop an innovative process that streamlines viral vector manufacturing and so helps to reduce the cost of advanced therapies.
“We look forward to working with Touchlight and Complement Therapeutics, both experts in advanced therapies, on this valuable project.”
Karen Fallen, Touchlight CEO, added the project had the potential to improve the productivity and cost of AAV manufacture, as well as eliminating bacterial impurities.
Touchlight’s enzyme-based DNA manufacturing platform will be used to produce doggybone DNA (dbDNA™) much faster than the plasmid DNA more often used to manufacture rAAV gene therapies.
The rAAV produced will then be employed to manufacture Complement Therapeutics’ gene therapy candidates, supported by CGT Catapult’s optimised rAAV manufacturing and analytical platform. CGT Catapult plans in turn to support other rAAV manufacturers around the UK to establish their own dbDNA-based manufacturing processes.
