Silence Therapeutics enters into collaboration with Genomics England

Novel therapeutics developer Silence Therapeutics has entered into a collaboration with Genomics England for the investigation of novel targets involved in human disease, it announced on Tuesday.

The AIM-traded firm said Genomics England had generated a unique database of more than 100,000 human genomes, for which whole genome sequencing data had been linked with clinical data.

It said that database was a “powerful resource” for Silence, given its ability to specifically silence disease-associated genes.

Under the terms of the agreement, Silence had been approved for access to a subset of Genomics England's dataset, as the company planned to focus its research on rare disease and cardiometabolic cohorts.

Silence said it would now proceed to mine data, with the objective of identifying novel disease-modifying target genes best suited to its proprietary platform technology, as well as optimising patient stratification and UK recruitment in the development of its RNAi product candidates.

“We are pleased to collaborate with Genomics England both to identify novel target genes with validation in large human cohorts and to aid patient selection for our planned clinical trials,” said Silence Therapeutics chief executive officer Dr David Horn Solomon.

“We look forward to continuing to advance our drug development efforts and to be able to better serve patients and their caregivers.

“This key collaboration will help us increase innovation in our target gene choices and will also be attractive to potential partners as we explore a variety of business development opportunities.”

Joanne Hackett, chief commercial officer of Genomics England, added that the collaboration with Silence Therapeutics was a “great example” of the utility of the Genomics England platform.

“The Discovery Forum was established to enable innovative research that will help improve patient outcomes for NHS patients, and patients around the world,” Hackett explained.

“We are proud to be working with Silence Therapeutics as they continue to pioneer in the field of RNAi-based therapies.”