Circio, GenAssist to develop AAV vectors for gene therapy, in vivo cell therapy

Circio Holding and China-based biotech GenAssist have inked a research collaboration to develop circVec-enhanced AAV vectors specifically engineered for in vivo cell therapy and targeted, low dose systemic gene therapy.

The partnership will combine Circio´s proprietary circVec circular RNA platform — which has demonstrated up to 50-fold enhanced gene expression from AAV vectors in vivo — with GenAssist´s proprietary tissue-specific and liver de-targeting AAV capsids and promoters. GenAssist´s AAV delivery technology is designed for targeted delivery and expression in muscle and T-cells.

“This partnership directly addresses the core demands of next-generation genetic medicine, overcoming the traditional dose-expression trade-off to deliver safer and more effective therapies,” said Chunyan He, Ph.D., CEO of GenAssist.

Circio and GenAssist will also explore joint in vivo CAR-T candidates for oncology and autoimmune diseases. The collaboration will combine GenAssist's T-cell-targeting AAV technology with Circio's circVec expression cassette to create novel AAVs for in vitro and in vivo testing. Successful candidates may advance to preclinical development.