$2 million grant builds on research to develop sequence elements that improve DNA- and RNA-based medicine efficacy

Primrose Bio, Inc., a company with proprietary biologic manufacturing technologies, today announced a $2 million, 24-month Direct-to-Phase II Small Business Innovation Research award from the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The project will develop synthetic noncoding sequence elements designed to increase and prolong protein expression from DNA- and RNA-based medicines.

Primrose Bio will use its proprietary ultra-high-throughput platform to screen billions of sequences, validate in cell models and apply proprietary AI-design optimization to create licensable sequence elements for DNA- and RNA-based medicines. The project is led by Patrik Engström, Ph.D., and builds upon foundational research into sequence design elements that significantly improved protein expression.

"This award builds on Primrose Bio's track record of bringing enabling technologies into commercial use," said Drew Burch, Chief Executive Officer of Primrose Bio. "It expands the sequence-based tools we can offer partners to improve the performance of genetic medicines."

"Noncoding sequences are critical control points for protein expression," said Patrik Engström, Ph.D., Principal Investigator and Principal Scientist at Primrose Bio. "Our platform can evaluate billions of candidates and identify those with the greatest potential. This funding will help us optimize and validate them for therapeutic use."

The project is titled "Enhanced nucleic acid therapeutics: synthetic sequence elements for boosting protein expression in genetic medicines." The NIH award number is 1R44TR006096-01.