Edinburgh-based synthetic biology company Synpromics announced a research collaboration with GE Healthcare “to jointly develop customised synthetic promoters optimised for GE Healthcare’s proprietary biopharmaceutical manufacturing platform.”

Synpromics said it will develop a complex bar-coded library of synthetic promoters, using its proprietary PromPT platform, for extensive screening in GE Healthcare’s Chinese Hamster Ovary (CHO)-based expression system.

“The resulting characterised promoter toolbox is anticipated to have broad applicability for increasing the yield of a range of biopharmaceuticals, including proteins difficult to manufacture,” said Synpromics.

“GE Healthcare is paying an upfront technology access fee and will have the rights to commercialise the improved platform.”

Synpromics CEO David Venables said: “We are delighted to be working with GE Healthcare, a world leading technology innovator to develop and commercialise our novel synthetic promoter platform.

“We believe our synthetic promoters will provide a much more efficient production system and we’re aiming to help GE Healthcare boost efficiency for its biopharma customers.”

Morgan Norris, GM, Upstream and Cell Culture for GE Healthcare’s Life Sciences business, said: “We are happy to be able to collaborate with Synpromics on developing enhanced tools for manufacturing biologics and thereby support our customers in their production efforts.”

Synpromics is a private company focused on commercialising its proprietary technology in the emerging field of synthetic biology “by developing customised synthetic promoters.”

The company has partnership deals with a number of gene therapy companies including AGTC, Adverum and uniQure.

Synpromics said its 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.