Evercyte, Phoenestra and TAmiRNA to highlight EVscale™ manufacturing ambitions at ASEV/CzeSEV meeting

Vienna, Austria: – Sister biotech companies Evercyte, Phoenestra and TAmiRNA will highlight their advanced capabilities in developing telomerized cells to produce clinical grade extracellular vesicles (EVs) when they jointly attend the upcoming shared Annual Meeting of the Austrian and Czechia Societies for Extracellular Vesicles (ASEV & CzeSEV) in Vienna.

As noted ASEV members, Evercyte and TAmiRNA are always a prominent presence at its meetings and this year are Platin(um) Sponsors as part of the EVscale^™ Partnership in collaboration with a third ‘family’ member, Phoenestra.

Industrial EV partnership

EVscale^™, a collaboration between the three companies, will be represented by an exhibition stand at the meeting venue, the University Clinic of Dentistry at Medical University Vienna. Their team in Vienna will include their leading decision makers; Evercyte Chief Scientific Officer Dr. Regina Grillari, TAmiRNA CEO Dr. Matthias Hackl, and Phoenestra CEO Dr. Klaus Graumann. Together, they will highlight the partnership’s progress towards commercial manufacture of EVs at scale.

The EVscale^™ platform technology encompasses Evercyte ‘cell factory’ capabilities in developing telomerized MSCs derived from different tissues, along with TAmiRNA’s expertise in extended RNA and protein characterization of EV composition and biological functionalities, and Phoenestra’s proprietary EV scalable production and enrichment platform.

One-stop shop

Evercyte has already established five production MSC cell lines that support production of clinical grade EVs: ASC/TERT300 (adipose tissue), BM-MSC/TERT292 (bone marrow), CP-MSC/TERT308 (placental chorionic plate), P-MSC/TERT308 (placental amnion), and WJ-MSC/TERT273 (Wharton’s Jelly). These cell lines have been established under xeno-free conditions, with full documentation of all manipulation steps to make them ready for tech transfer to a GMP facility for generation of a master cell bank that can be used for production of clinical grade vesicles.

The ultimate EVscale^™ vision is for an innovative one-stop shop and end-to-end platform for scalable and efficient manufacturing of extracellular vesicles from MSCs that will allow customers to tailor projects from cell sourcing to basic EV characterization, and from EV manufacturing to linking EV biological functions to RNA and protein EV components. Cells can then be adapted to tailored and scalable EV production, using Phoenestra’s proprietary fully controlled bioreactor.

Scientific inputs

Evercyte will also contribute a poster to the conference on ‘Immortalization of Wharton’s Jelly-MSC by hTERT does not affect the functional properties of secreted extracellular vesicles’ presented by doctoral student Alessia Brancolini. Meanwhile, TAmiRNA will showcase its interactive analysis reports for transcriptomics data analysis.

Evercyte’s Regina Grillari commented: “We will be proud to share knowledge on our telomerized cell lines for stable production of EVs that exhibit identical morphology, expression and canonical surface markers to their primary counterparts. Our telomerized cells maintain primary cell-like phenotype and characteristics, while showing extended lifespan, growing unlimitedly in vitro.”

Multiomic characterization

Matthias Hackl added: “Through our booth we aim to network with representatives from academia and industry who are working on applications of EVs as biomarkers or therapies. Our new EVscale™ platform combines Evercyte’s industry-leading cell factory capabilities and cell line development with Phoenestra’s scalable bioproduction processes.”

“When you also add into the mix TAmiRNA’s unique EV characterization abilities using multiomics and next-generation sequencing, then you have a really powerful one-stop solution for EV production, scale up and characterization. This can transform individual aspects of EV manufacturing or analytics as well as providing a full-service solution,” Dr. Hackl concluded.

About Evercyte GmbH

Evercyte is the leading provider of immortalized human primary-like cells (‘telomerized cells’) as well as novel cell lines for production of extracellular vesicles and is the partner of choice for innovative cell-based assays in the field of pharma, biotech, or cosmetic industries.

The core technology used for the establishment of these highly relevant human cell lines relies on the reactivation of the human telomerase enzyme. Besides customer-tailored cell line development as a one-stop shop, Evercyte is steadily expanding its catalogue of readily available cell lines to produce extracellular vesicles from mesenchymal stromal cells using different tissues including adipose tissue, bone marrow, placenta, amnion or dental pulp.

By providing native extracellular vesicles from mesenchymal stromal cells Evercyte will make a significant contribution to the development of new therapeutic approaches. Additionally, Evercyte will promote its platform technology for the generation of recombinant EVs e.g. tissue targeting and targeted drug delivery.

Founded in 2011, the Vienna-based company successfully pioneered the development of tools and know-how necessary for the establishment of standardized high-throughput in vitro bioassays as well as relevant cell models and cell factories.

Learn more at: http://www.evercyte.com

About TAmiRNA

TAmiRNA specializes in technologies for profiling levels of blood-circulating miRNAs and developing multi-parametric classification algorithms (“signatures”). TAmiRNA uses these technologies to develop minimal-invasive diagnostic tests for drug development, early diagnosis, and prognosis of disease, and as companion diagnostic tests to support treatment decisions. Through its CRO business, TAmiRNA enables clients from academic to private sectors to perform high-quality RNA profiling of various sample types and offers a fully integrated service from RNA extraction to data analysis. TAmiRNA has optimized its workflows for the comprehensive analysis of EV small and long RNA cargo.

TAmiRNA is among Europe´s first companies that have CE-marked a microRNA-based test – hepatomiR® – which is intended for the diagnosis of liver function in liver cancer patients.

For TAmiRNA´s work on novel drug safety biomarkers, TAmiRNA receives funding from the Innovative Medicines Initiative 2 Joint Undertaking “TransBioLine” under grant agreement No. 821283. This Joint Undertaking receives support from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme and EFPIA. For its work on senescence-associated biomarkers, TAmiRNA is receiving funding from Eureka-Eurostars grant Ab-SENS. For its work on novel liver function biomarkers, TAmiRNA is receiving funding from the Vienna Business Agency as well as FFG.

More information available at: www.tamirna.com

About Phoenestra

Headquartered in Linz, Austria, Phoenestra specializes in developing scalable bioprocessing of stem cells, stable and engineered cell lines, differentiated cells, EVs/exosomes, and nanovesicles.

The company’s mission is to overcome technological issues currently restricting the cell and gene therapy (CGT) field and bridging the existing “industrialization gap” in CGT manufacturing capabilities.

Phoenestra’s proprietary scalable processes include Control Strategies for cell- and vesicle-based products. These combine stable, high quality cell lines and scalable bioprocesses with CMC Control Strategies to accelerate product development and reduce cost of manufacturing.

Phoenestra is currently building end-to-end technology platforms to ensure highest technological and quality standards for products, with cell cultivation performed in a fully controlled perfusion bioreactor system and isolation and purification of EV preparation with modular processing unit operations. Its services include EV supplies in flexible amounts to process development and product definition for development of therapeutic products.

Learn more at: https://www.phoenestra.com

About ASEV/CzeSEV Annual Meeting 2024

The Austrian Society for Extracellular Vesicles (ASEV) is holding its annual meeting for 2024 in partnership with the newly formed Czech Republic Society for Extracellular Vesicles (CzeSEV).

The meeting will provide a forum for exchange of EV insights and scientific knowledge. Keynote speakers for 2024 are headed by the pioneer in EV research Professor Marca Wauben of Utrecht University, in The Netherlands, who is a world expert in deciphering the role of EVs in intercellular communication, along with Professor Alireza Fazeli of Estonia’s Tartu University, who is a leader in research on translational aspects of immune, reproductive, and developmental medicine. Other speakers include Prof. Carlos Salomon from University of Queensland, Australia, who is director of its Center for Extracellular Vesicle Nanomedicine and a worldwide authority on EV biomarkers for complications in pregnancy, plus Prof. Samir El-Andaloussi of Sweden’s Karolinska Institute.

The ASEV/CzeSEV Annual Meeting, is a two-day event opening September 16 at the Clinic of Dentistry on the Medical University campus in Vienna. The conference program is strongly focused on the sourcing, tracing and drug delivery potential of EVs.

The event is jointly organized by ASEV and CzeSEV with further information at: https://www.asev.at/annualmeeting

Resources

Click on Evercyte and TAmiRNA team with Phoenestra to offer EVs at scale for background information.
Click on Evercyte Cell Factories for further information.
Click on extracellular vesicles ready to use / off-the-shelf to learn more.
Click on TAmiRNA EV products and characterization services for further information.
Click on miND® pipeline for small RNA-sequencing to learn more about NextGen multiomic characterization.
Click on Evercyte enrichment potency testing for further information.