Touchlight and LenioBio Enter Supply Agreement for Rapid DNA Production

• LenioBio and Touchlight collaborate to speed up vaccine development using enzymatic DNA and cell-free protein production technologies.

• The partnership aims to leverage Touchlight’s dbDNA to enhance LenioBio’s CEPI-funded project for rapid vaccine manufacturing.

LenioBio, a biotech company pioneering cell-free protein production, has entered into a supply agreement with Touchlight, privately-owned CDMO based in London. The collaboration aims to harness Touchlight’s rapid enzymatic doggybone DNA (dbDNA) to accelerate vaccine development within LenioBio’s CEPI-funded project.

LenioBio’s project, funded by the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), seeks to demonstrate the efficacy of their plant-based, cell-free ALiCE (Almost Living Cell-Free Expression) technology. This technology already shows potential in producing vaccine-relevant proteins in just 48 hours, offering a significant speed advantage over traditional methods. The partnership with Touchlight aims to address the critical challenge of ensuring a fast and reliable DNA supply, particularly vital during epidemic or pandemic situations.

Touchlight’s dbDNA is a minimal, linear, double-stranded, covalently closed DNA vector produced using enzymatic methods. This approach eliminates the need for traditional bacterial fermentation, allowing production at GMP quality with unprecedented speed, scale, and purity. By integrating Touchlight’s dbDNA with LenioBio’s cell-free protein production process, the partnership aims to establish a seamless end-to-end manufacturing process, enhancing pandemic preparedness.

“We are delighted to be working with LenioBio to further demonstrate the breadth of dbDNA applications. We are excited to supply our enzymatic DNA to be used in LenioBio’s cell-free protein platform – the combination of two cell-free technologies is a perfect synergy and shows the power of engineering biology,” commented Tommy Duncan, COO of Touchlight.

LenioBio CEO, Andre Goerke, added, “We’re thrilled to partner with Touchlight and explore the synergy between our innovative technologies to achieve unprecedented speed in scaled protein production. Having surveyed the DNA manufacturing landscape, it is clear to us that cell-free DNA amplification will greatly contribute to producing vaccines within 100 days, and dbDNA is the field-leading innovation to support this ultra-rapid, advanced manufacture of essential vaccines and medicines.”