Circio and Avenue Biosciences jointly announce research collaboration to enhance protein secretion for gene therapy
* Avenue Biosciences high throughput, machine learning-powered platform engineers and screens signal peptide variants to increase protein secretion
from cells
* Circio's circVec technology has demonstrated significantly enhanced and durable gene expression in several tissues, including heart, eye, and central nervous system
* The aim is to explore whether the combination of these technologies can act synergistically for delivery of secreted proteins by AAV gene therapy
* The collaboration fits into Circio s strategy to broadly test the performance of circVec for various tissues and genetic payloads to identify multiple potential therapeutic applications
Oslo, Norway, and Palo Alto, California, USA -- 16 July 2026 -- Circio Holding ASA (OSE: CRNA), a biotechnology company developing novel circular RNA expression technology for gene and cell therapy, and Avenue Biosciences, a transatlantic protein engineering company, today jointly announce a research collaboration to combine their synergistic technologies to improve long-term expression of secreted proteins, relevant for treatment of a broad range of diseases.
Secreting proteins from cells into surrounding tissue, or into circulation, opens new treatment opportunities beyond classical gene therapy for monogenic disease. Circio's circVec platform drives higher and more durable protein expression. Avenue Biosciences' protein engineering technology improves protein release ("secretion") from cells by screening thousands of signal peptide-protein combinations. Circio and Avenue jointly explore whether the two technologies in combination can act synergistically to improve the production and secretion of proteins, including antibodies, for the treatment of genetic and chronic diseases.
"Many gene therapies are limited by insufficient protein expression, driving high doses, manufacturing complexity, and cost. The secretory pathway -- the cellular machinery that produces and exports proteins -- is a largely underutilized engineering opportunity. By combining Circio's durable circular RNA expression with our technology, we aim to increase protein output per dose and ultimately help more patients benefit from life-changing genetic medicines," said Avenue Biosciences CEO Tero-Pekka Alastalo (MD, PhD).
In the collaboration, Avenue Biosciences' will deploy its protein engineering platform to identify signal peptides that enable improved secretion of therapeutic proteins expressed by circVec. The initial screening will be performed by Avenue Biosciences, followed by further in vitro and in vivo testing by Circio.
"A significant proportion of therapeutically relevant payloads for circVec are secreted proteins," said Dr Victor Levitsky, CSO of Circio. "With the Avenue platform, we will test how signal peptide optimization can enhance secretion of proteins and thereby open novel opportunities for the circVec platform in genetic and chronic disease. This collaboration is an important addition to our pre-clinical development strategy of testing circVec in multiple settings through R&D partnerships to broadly explore the range of therapeutic options available for our unique circular RNA expression technology."
About Avenue Biosciences Avenue Biosciences is a transatlantic biotechnology company dedicated to accelerating the discovery and development of protein biologics, so that no life-saving therapy goes unrealized because of production barriers. Avenue Biosciences has developed a protein engineering platform that combines wet lab chemistry and machine learning to boost protein production.
www.avenuebiosciences.com (http://www.avenuebiosciences.com/).
About Circio
Circio Holding ASA is a biotechnology company developing novel circular RNA expression technology for gene and cell therapy.
Circio has established a unique circular RNA (circRNA) vector expression technology for next generation RNA, DNA and viral therapeutics. The proprietary circVec platform is based on a modular genetic construct designed for efficient biogenesis of multifunctional circRNA inside target cells. The circVec platform has applications in multiple therapeutic settings, including genetic medicine, cell therapy and chronic disease. It has demonstrated 75-fold increased RNA half-life and up to 50-fold enhanced protein expression vs. conventional mRNA-based viral and non-viral vector systems, with the potential to become a new gold-standard gene expression technology. The circVec R&D activities are being conducted by the wholly owned subsidiary Circio AB in Stockholm, Sweden.
For further information, please contact:
Erik Digman Wiklund, CEO Phone: +47 413 33 536
Email: erik.wiklund@circio.com
Lubor Gaal, CFO Phone: +34 683 34 3811