New precision medicine venture gives Syngenis added firepower

Perth life sciences player Syngenis Labs has joined forces with the renowned Perron Institute and the scientists behind Gene S to form a new precision-medicine company aimed at scaling an Australian-developed pharmacogenomics platform. Pharmacogenomics uses a patient’s genetic make-up to help determine which medicines and doses may work best for them.

Syngenis, through its wholly owned Syngenis Ventures arm, will own one-third of the new Gene S Dx venture, alongside the Perron Institute and Gene S founders Dr Svetlana Baltic and Dr Suzanna Lindsey-Temple, who will collectively hold the remaining third. Gene S Dx has acquired the Gene S business, its Rosa pharmacogenomics platform and the development intellectual property behind it.

For Syngenis, the deal looks like a neat real-world example of the integrated biotechnology model it has been pursuing, combining equity ownership with its DNA and RNA expertise, laboratory infrastructure and manufacturing muscle.

The Perth group is building an Australian end-to-end genetic medicine platform spanning AI-assisted discovery, laboratory development and ultimately, good manufacturing practice, otherwise coined GMP-regulated manufacturing.

At its heart are oligonucleotides – short, purpose-built strands of DNA or RNA used in everything from genetic testing to medicines designed to target or silence disease-related genetic instructions. Syngenis can use its Discovery AI platform to identify and design prospective candidates, then synthesise and test them in its own laboratories.

With Gene S now under the Gene S Dx umbrella, the company can now bring its nucleic-acid chemistry and laboratory expertise to Rosa and manufacture the oligonucleotide components of its DNA test kits in Australia, another step towards keeping more of the genetic-medicine value chain on home soil.

Syngenis’ research-grade manufacturing operation at Bentley Technology Park in Perth is already generating revenue, while clinical-grade GMP manufacturing is targeted for 2027.

Just weeks after outlining its ambition to stretch that model across the genetic-medicine pathway, the company’s latest investment in Gene S Dx provides a tangible example of that strategy in action.

Syngenis labs managing director Thomas Hanly said : “Rosa is a genuinely good piece of Australian science that was built on very little.