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Murray Ward
Perth life sciences player Syngenis Labs has joined forces with the renowned Perron Institute and the scientists behind Gene S to form a new precision-medicine company aimed at scaling an Australian-developed pharmacogenomics platform. Pharmacogenomics uses a patientโs genetic make-up to help determine which medicines and doses may work best for them.
Syngenis, through its wholly owned Syngenis Ventures arm, will own one-third of the new Gene S Dx venture, alongside the Perron Institute and Gene S founders Dr Svetlana Baltic and Dr Suzanna Lindsey-Temple, who will collectively hold the remaining third. Gene S Dx has acquired the Gene S business, its Rosa pharmacogenomics platform and the development intellectual property behind it.
For Syngenis, the deal looks like a neat real-world example of the integrated biotechnology model it has been pursuing, combining equity ownership with its DNA and RNA expertise, laboratory infrastructure and manufacturing muscle.
The Perth group is building an Australian end-to-end genetic medicine platform spanning AI-assisted discovery, laboratory development and ultimately, good manufacturing practice, otherwise coined GMP-regulated manufacturing.
โWe have not bought a test. We have bought the science and the interpretation layer that sits between a patientโs genome and their prescription.โ
Syngenis Labs managing director Thomas Hanly
At its heart are oligonucleotides โ short, purpose-built strands of DNA or RNA used in everything from genetic testing to medicines designed to target or silence disease-related genetic instructions. Syngenis can use its Discovery AI platform to identify and design prospective candidates, then synthesise and test them in its own laboratories.
With Gene S now under the Gene S Dx umbrella, the company can now bring its nucleic-acid chemistry and laboratory expertise to Rosa and manufacture the oligonucleotide components of its DNA test kits in Australia, another step towards keeping more of the genetic-medicine value chain on home soil.
Adding to the momentum, the brains behind Rosa are staying on. Baltic continues as chief executive and Lindsey-Temple as chief medical officer, while the technical, software, quality and regulatory team transfers into Gene S Dx.
Syngenis brings some financial muscle to the table, having recently banked $4 million through a pre-IPO raise ahead of a proposed ASX listing as it targets growth across precision medicine, RNA therapeutics and oligonucleotide synthesis.
Syngenisโ research-grade manufacturing operation at Bentley Technology Park in Perth is already generating revenue, while clinical-grade GMP manufacturing is targeted for 2027.
Just weeks after outlining its ambition to stretch that model across the genetic-medicine pathway, the companyโs latest investment in Gene S Dx provides a tangible example of that strategy in action.
Syngenis labs managing director Thomas Hanly said: โRosa is a genuinely good piece of Australian science that was built on very little. What we bring to it is the chemistry and the capacity to make it: we design and manufacture nucleic acids for a living, so we can sit alongside Svetlanaโs team on panel design for the next indications and then produce the kits at volume, here, rather than watching the supply chain run offshore.โ
As Hanly neatly puts it: โWe have not bought a test.โ
What Syngenis has effectively acquired is the science, and, just as importantly, the interpretation layer sitting between a patientโs genome and their doctorโs prescription, allowing the company to not only design new genetic test panels but also manufacture the resulting kits at volume.
Rosa, named after DNA pioneer Rosalind Franklin, combines next-generation genetic sequencing with its proprietary RosaAnalyser software. Although the laboratory generates a patientโs genetic data, itโs the Rosa software that does the heavy lifting, interpreting clinically relevant variants and translating them into a clinician-ready report showing how the patient may metabolise or respond to particular medicines and doses.
Doctors can then use the report -usually ready within two to three days from a single blood, buccal, or saliva sample – alongside a patientโs clinical history and other medical considerations when choosing a medicine and dose, adding patient-specific genetic evidence to the decision-making process.
Genetic variations can affect how quickly or slowly a person metabolises a drug, whether it is likely to work and the risk of unwanted side effects. Two patients can have the same condition and receive the same medicine at the same dose yet produce completely different results.
RosaMind is the first cab off the rank on the broader Rosa platform. Focused on mental health, it reads eight genes and provides prescribing guidance across more than 20 medicines used for depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, psychosis and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
Because the underlying genetic information does not change, the result can potentially help inform future prescribing decisions involving medicines affected by the same genetic pathways, not just the prescription pushed by big pharma in front of the doctor that day.
The size of the problem RosaMind is targeting is hard to ignore. The landmark STAR*D study found only about one in three patients achieved remission after their first antidepressant treatment, while doctors can be left waiting six to eight weeks to see whether a particular treatment is doing the job.
For someone battling severe depression, getting that first prescription wrong can kick off months of trial and error โ take the medication, wait for a response, deal with potential side effects and, if it falls short, start the process again with another drug or dose. Now, with this new technology, doctors have another card to play before that cycle begins.
While RosaMind may be the opening act, Gene S Dx believes the underlying Rosa platform may have a bigger role to play.
The newly formed biotech says pain management is next, followed by cardiac prescribing, with a gut-health kit also under development. Each represents another test kit built on the same Rosa foundations rather than another platform started from scratch.
And that is where the commercial gears begin to mesh for Syngenis.
Notably, Rosa can run on sequencing equipment already used by pathology laboratories, allowing the labs to adopt the new platform without shelling out for entirely new hardware. Its proprietary software is provided to participating laboratories free of charge, with Gene S Dx instead generating recurring revenue from the specialised reagents and consumables required every time a patient test is run.
The game changer for Syngenis is that as more laboratories adopt Rosa and testing volumes build, the more manufacturing work it is likely to pick up. Add new Rosa applications to a growing pool of patient tests and the opportunity gets bigger again, with Syngenis potentially developing and manufacturing an expanding suite of genetic testing panels.
Meanwhile, fellow one-third owner, the Perron Institute, brings some serious scientific horsepower to Gene S Dx.
Founded in 1982, it is Western Australiaโs longest-established medical research institute and a significant Australian nucleic-acid research centre, with programs spanning motor neurone disease, Parkinsonโs disease, other rare diseases and youth mental health. Perron has already worked with the Gene S team on a study dubbed GENE-YD, which focused specifically on the prescription of pharmacogenetics-guided antidepressants in young people.
The instituteโs credentials dovetail neatly with Syngenis. Perron researchers developed gene-targeting technology using antisense oligonucleotides that helped lead to the first US Food and Drug Administration-approved treatment for Duchenne muscular dystrophy, with two more approved treatments later following from the same research.
Perron is also a strategic shareholder in Syngenis, while Syngenis founder and chief technology officer Professor Rakesh Veedu has longstanding research links with the institute and, notably, also in personalised medicine.
The commercial prize sitting behind the science is potentially enormous. Gene S Dx is stepping into a global precision medicine market that Grand View Research valued at US$116.6 billion (A$163B) in 2025 and expects it to reach US$405.1(A$570) billion by 2033 โ compound annual growth of nearly 17 per cent.
Gene S Dx appears far more than another biotech investment for Syngenis. Its one-third stake gives the company exposure to an Australian-developed pharmacogenomics platform with room to push into multiple prescribing categories, while putting its own genetic-medicine capabilities to work developing and manufacturing the tests behind it.
The attraction is simple. Every new Rosa application, laboratory and patient test could potentially expand the market for products Syngenis can help design and manufacture.
And if Syngenis can repeat that formula across other promising DNA and RNA technologies, Gene S Dx could be the first real glimpse of the bigger game – turning Australian science into Australian-made products and a potentially powerful stream of recurring revenue.
Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: mattbirney@bullsnbears.com.au
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