Dyno Therapeutics announced that Astellas Pharma has exercised an option to license a novel adeno-associated virus capsid engineered for skeletal muscle-targeted gene delivery.
Under the 2021 collaboration, Dyno will receive a $15 million license fee and is eligible for clinical development, regulatory and commercial milestone payments as well as royalties, while Astellas will be responsible for preclinical, clinical and commercialization activities.
The company claims the licensed capsid shows superior skeletal muscle targeting in nonhuman primates and can leverage existing AAV9-based manufacturing processes to support efficient large-scale production. This is Dyno’s first licensed muscle capsid and its second capsid license overall; Dyno previously licensed an AI-designed CNS capsid to Roche in January 2025, the company notes.
Dyno applies artificial intelligence models trained on extensive in vivo data to engineer capsids, and the company frames the transaction as validation of its AI-powered sequence design platform.
