At a Glance
- Company: Circio Holding and Avenue Biosciences
- Location: Oslo and Palo Alto
- Deal value: Not disclosed
- Focus area: Gene therapy platform optimisation and secreted proteins
- Next steps: Start with in vitro signal peptide screening, then move into further preclinical testing
What happened?
Circio Holding and Avenue Biosciences have agreed to work together on improving long-term expression of therapeutic proteins using Circio’s circVec circular RNA platform and Avenue’s protein engineering technology. The collaboration will focus first on screening signal peptides that can help circVec-produced proteins be secreted more efficiently.
Why does it matter?
The partnership targets a key limitation in gene therapy: when protein expression is too low, developers may need higher doses, which can complicate manufacturing and limit patient access. If the approach works, it could make secreted-protein gene therapies more practical and durable.
Who’s behind it?
Circio is developing circular RNA-based expression technology for gene and cell therapy, while Avenue Biosciences specialises in engineering proteins and screening signal peptide variants. Together, they are trying to improve how therapeutic proteins are produced and exported from cells.
How was it achieved?
The plan is to combine circVec’s expression strength with Avenue’s machine-learning-based signal peptide screening. Avenue will begin with high-throughput in vitro screening, and Circio will then take the most promising candidates into additional in vitro and in vivo work.
What’s next?
The collaboration will start with signal peptide optimisation and then expand into preclinical testing. The companies will be looking for evidence that the combination can improve secretion enough to support broader use in genetic and chronic diseases.