Circio Holding ASA (OSE:CRNA) a biotechnology company developing novel circular RNA expression technology for gene and cell therapy, announced on Wednesday that it has formed a CAR-T cell therapy research collaboration with Tcelltech GmbH, a biotechnology company developing non-viral, episomal DNA vector technology for the engineering of T cells.

The collaboration will combine Circio's circVec circular RNA expression technology with Tcelltech's double-stranded, non-integrating nanoSMAR vector platform for the development of next-generation engineered T-cell therapies.

The partners aim to generate in vivo CAR-T and TCR-T cells with enhanced and more durable expression while eliminating the need for viral vectors, with the objective of creating safer and longer-lasting cell therapies. As part of a staged research programme, the companies will first evaluate gene expression strength and durability in primary human T cells before generating CD19-directed CAR-T cells and testing their tumour-killing capabilities.

This partnership supports Circio's strategy of evaluating its circVec technology across multiple modalities and delivery technologies to develop differentiated in vivo CAR-T therapies.