Univercells Acquires Biotechnology Firm SynHelix

Univercells S.A. has acquired SynHelix, which aims to debottleneck biotherapeutics expansion by providing a scalable, robust, and automated DNA synthesis technology that develops extended DNA fragments additionally, with improved purity, in a single step in a cGMP-compliant setup.SynHelix’s offering will complement Quantoom Biosciences SA’s (Quantoom) RNA platform, which is creating an end-to-end RNA synthesis technology.

Until recently, AdBio Partners, a French life sciences venture finance business, has backed SynHelix. After the sale, SynHelix will be renamed Quantoom Research Center, a distinct legal organization and new Univercells Group subsidiary based in France. Both SynHelix and AdBio’s founders would eventually become minority shareholders in Univercells.

“We were the first venture capital firm to trust in SynHelix’s revolutionary technology and to gamble on the creativity and uniqueness of its scientific founders, Irina Gbalou and Ahmed Stated, by investing in December 2019,” stated Alain Huriez, chairman and managing partner of AdBio Partners. Univercells matched all of the criteria for an excellent industrial partner, and we’re ecstatic to have played a role in this transaction as a company builder.”SynHelix, based in Evry-Courcouronnes, France, is working on a technique that can replace DNA amplification on bacteria, which needs vast, expensive industrial facilities, as well as extensive processing and quality control stages for extremely poor yields.

SynHelix intends to integrate this technology into Quantoom’s automated platform, which will include a “new generation DNA bioreactor” that will bring record productivity and cost savings for both R&D and manufacturing demands.SynHelix is a member of Genopole, France’s top biocluster and incubator for exceptional biotechnology initiatives, which provides a unique environment for academics and businesses looking to develop and progress their research.