Synthetic biology company Asimov has launched the AAV Edge System.
The suite of tools is suitable for the design and manufacture of adeno-associated viral (AAV) gene therapies, allowing developers access to a singular technology that can optimise their development pipeline.
Gene therapies could revolutionise the treatment landscape for a number of diseases, but currently the field is struggling with a number of challenges.
This includess safety, efficacy, feasibility of manufacturing and the cost to produce them.
This is only exacerbated by the fragmented ecosystem surrounding gene therapy development and manufacture, as crucial technologies are often distributed across a range of service providers.
Asimov's AAV Edge System aims to address this challenge by providing end-to-end services that unite several technologies under one roof.
The AAV Edge System currently offers:
- Payload design capabilities: The system includes tissue-specific promoters ideal for enhancing the safety and efficacy of gene therapies, as well as DNA sequence optimisation capabilities for higher expression levels in vivo and tools to silence a gene of interest during production
- A production system: Asimov's transient transfection-based AAV manufacturing system features a GMP-banked cell line (HEK293), an optimised two-plasmid system and process development guides influenced by a machine learning model to enhance bioreactor performance
Asimov's Co-Founder and CEO, Alec Nielsen, said: "Our team has been on a roll – AAV Edge is our third launch in cell and gene therapy this year. The cost and safety of gene therapies is top of mind for many in the field, and we're driven to help our partners on both design and production to enable more of these powerful medicines to reach patients. This is Asimov’s latest application in programming biology, made possible by leveraging AI, synthetic biology, and bioprocess engineering. There’s more to come, and we’re excited to keep pushing the envelope.”