Annogen incorporated to commercialize SuRE technology for Functional Genome Annotation. 

Amsterdam, December 2019

Annogen BV is an Amsterdam based biotech company focussed on functional genome annotation using its proprietary SuRE technology. Its sister company Gen-X BV has just signed an exclusive deal for use of SuRE for gene therapy with uniQure and consequently Annogen was incorporated with exclusive rights to commercialize the technology outside the gene therapy field. The company will apply its technology in several fields of interest including drug discovery, pharmacogenomics, cell therapy and agricultural biotechnology.

The SuRE technology enables the analysis of hundreds of millions of DNA elements for their activity as promoters or enhancers in a single experiment. The only required input is DNA and once a SuRE library is established it can analyzed and compared to other DNA sources in the controlled environment of any transfectable cell type. Thus, without the requirement of invasive biopsies, any genome of interest can be analyzed in relevant cell types and under relevant  conditions, enabling the identification of regulatory DNA elements as well as the genetic variation in these elements that define traits and diseases in humans, plants and animals.

Annogen has its labs and offices at the Amsterdam Science Park.

Why promoter design is no longer just an expression checkbox, it’s the key to therapeutic endurance.

Why promoter design is no longer just an expression checkbox, it’s the key to therapeutic endurance.

Promoter design is becoming central to durable cell and gene therapy, as the field moves beyond delivery and toward precise expression control. Standard promoters like CMV or PGK often fail to solve key clinical challenges: off-target activity, “always-on” expression that can drive cellular exhaustion, and epigenetic silencing that shuts therapies down in vivo. Annogen’s SuRE™ platform addresses these bottlenecks by experimentally screening millions of non-coding DNA fragments in relevant models and refining designs with machine learning. The result is not a generic promoter, but a validated, non-viral promoter tailored for the specific tissue, condition, and therapeutic context.

VectorY’s Clinical Milestone and the Shift Toward Experimentally-Validated Promoters

VectorY’s Clinical Milestone and the Shift Toward Experimentally-Validated Promoters

The first patient dosing in VectorY Therapeutics’ PIONEER-ALS trial marks a definitive shift in gene therapy, moving past the “conservative” reliance on blunt viral promoters and the “digital guesses” of AI. While many rely on algorithms built from incomplete and insensitive data, VTx-002 is powered by an Annogen genome-derived promoter discovered through rigorous, large-scale experimental validation. This milestone proves that true therapeutic precision isn’t predicted in a black box—it is found by interrogating the genome directly to deliver the biological truth required for the clinic.

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