Synbody Biotechnology Inc. Relocating to Connecticut

This information was submitted in a news release.

Connecticut Innovations (CI), the state's quasi-public authority responsible for technology-based innovation and economic development, today announced that it has made an investment of $750,000 in Synbody Biotechnology Inc. (SBI) through its Seed Investment Fund. The company recently relocated from the Philadelphia area to Farmington. 

SBI is a startup biotechnology company established to advance a novel drug discovery platform that utilizes unstructured, synthetically produced peptides to generate "Synbodies" (synthetic antibodies). The patent-pending Synbody technology has a broad range of potential therapeutic application areas including oncology, cardiovascular, central nervous system, diabetes and infectious disease. Developed at Arizona State University (ASU), the technology has been supported with over $10 million in funding to date.

"We are delighted that Synbody Biotechnology chose to relocate to Connecticut and join the state's growing bioscience community. Our investment in SBI directly supports Governor Malloy's goal to strengthen Connecticut's bioscience capacity and make Connecticut a hub for bioscience and biotechnology," said Claire Leonardi, chief executive officer and executive director of CI. "Through the University of Connecticut's Technology Incubation Program, SBI will be able to work collaboratively with UConn scientists and leverage their expertise in order to advance this exciting technology."

Synbody technology offers a number of advantages over current pharmaceutical platforms, namely small molecules, antibodies and peptides. Most importantly, the technology has the capability to address many drug targets considered inaccessible to current drug platforms. This, in large part, is due to the unique binding capabilities of Synbodies and their ability to penetrate cell membranes to reach intracellular targets.

"SBI technology has broad applicability toward therapeutic and proteomic discovery and is ideally suited to capitalize on and contribute to Connecticut’s leadership in personalized medicine and biotechnology," said Paul Hallenbeck, Ph.D., SBI's president, chief executive officer and co-founder. "We are truly delighted to be here and look forward to working closely with our partners at CI and within the Connecticut biotechnology community."

SBI is led by a strong team with significant scientific, business and venture capital experience. The company's president, Paul Hallenbeck, Ph.D., previously served as president of two biomedical ventures and was a researcher and senior manager at Novartis. Kevin Burroughs, Ph.D., SBI vice president of research and development and co-founder, has been involved in therapeutics research at Neotropix, Wyeth and Genetic Therapy (Novartis).

Stephen Johnston, Ph.D., a member of SBI's scientific team and co-founder, is a co-director of the Center for Innovations in Medicine at the Biodesign Institute and a professor of biology at ASU. Johnston has led teams at ASU that developed the Synbody technology to be advanced by SBI. Chris Diehnelt, Ph.D., a member of SBI's scientific team and co-founder, is an assistant professor in the Center for Innovations in Medicine at the Biodesign Institute at ASU and is a co-inventor of the Synbody technology.

"I’d like to welcome Synbody Biotechnology to Farmington, a town that continues to expand as an important bioscience hub for Connecticut," said State Senator Beth Bye (D-West Hartford). "The type of technology that SBI is working on addresses a real need in the medical marketplace, and it will benefit the residents of Connecticut and patients around the world. This is exactly the kind of business venture we envisioned for Connecticut if we made the right investment in bioscience and the health sciences. And we did."

Daniel Wagner, CI managing director of investments, will serve on SBI's board of directors.

About Connecticut Innovations Inc.
Connecticut Innovations (CI) is a quasi-public organization dedicated to driving a vibrant, entrepreneurial, technology-based economy in Connecticut. CI stimulates high-tech growth by investing in early-stage Connecticut technology companies, university/industry research collaborations and technology transfer and collaborating with government, business, nonprofit and academic organizations to advance technology growth and promote public policies consistent with CI's mission. For more information on CI, please visit www.ctinnovations.com. 

About Synbody Biotechnology Inc.
Synbody Biotechnology Inc. (SBI) is leveraging a revolutionary platform for the discovery and development of novel and attractive molecules in the therapeutic, diagnostic, and proteomic technology fields. Synbody technology is the first biopharmaceutical platform to capitalize on the recently recognized and important role of small flexible regions of proteins, termed molecular recognition features (MoRF), to mediate interactions with other proteins. The utilization of MoRF-like peptides in constructing Synbodies lends several key engineering and application advantages, including novel mechanisms of target binding, unprecedented design flexibility and rapid parallel optimization of molecular properties. These unique properties translate to SBI's ability to create therapeutic agents against high-value drug targets that have evaded the drug industry for years. The company has an exclusive worldwide license for the technology from Arizona Technology Enterprises (AzTE) and is advancing therapeutic and diagnostic leads for oncology, infectious, and inflammatory diseases. For more information on SBI, please visit www.synbodybio.com.

About Arizona Technology Enterprises (AzTE)
AzTE is a non-profit organization that operates as the exclusive intellectual property management and technology transfer organization for ASU and its research enterprise. Composed of industry and university veterans, AzTE brings together ASU's researchers and industry partners to transform discoveries into marketable products and services. For more information on AzTE, please visit www.azte.com.