Release Therapeutics Secures Innosuisse Funding to Expand Encapsulated Cell Technology for Sanfilippo Syndrome Type IIIA

The competitive funding reflects confidence in the translational potential of the Company’s platform, supporting its expansion into a second rare CNS indication

GENEVA, SWITZERLAND, October 22, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Campus Innovation Park — Release Therapeutics (“Release Tx” or “the Company”), a privately held Swiss BioMedTech company, today announced that it has been awarded a CHF 500,000 Innovation Project grant from Innosuisse, the Swiss Innovation Agency, under an academic-industry partnership with the Faculty of Medicine, University of Geneva (UNIGE). The non-dilutive funding will support preclinical development of the Company’s proprietary encapsulated cell technology (ECT) for Sanfilippo syndrome type IIIA (mucopolysaccharidosis type IIIA; MPS IIIA), representing the second therapeutic programme based on the platform.

MPS IIIA is a devastating, ultra-rare lysosomal storage disorder that causes progressive neurodegeneration and severe cognitive decline, with symptoms generally beginning in early childhood. The disease results from an inherited deficiency of the enzyme sulfamidase (SGSH), leading to toxic accumulation of heparan sulfate (HS) throughout the central nervous system (CNS). Until recently, treatment for MPS IIIA was limited to supportive care, with patients typically progressing to profound neurological disability and death by around age 15. In September 2026, the gene therapy FAYUVI™ became the first disease-modifying therapy approved for patients with MPS IIIA with preserved neurodevelopmental function, representing an important advance for patients and establishing SGSH restoration as a clinically validated therapeutic strategy.

Under the 24-month Innosuisse-funded programme, Release Tx and UNIGE will advance the Myo-P5A^®, a living implant designed to provide continuous delivery of SGSH to the CNS through a fundamentally different modality. The programme aims to establish preclinical proof-of-concept that a subcutaneously implanted cell-encapsulation device can achieve sustained, therapeutically relevant SGSH exposure in the CNS, combining continuous enzyme production with an approach designed to enable enzyme delivery across the blood-brain barrier. Looking ahead, the design of the Myo-P5A is intended to enable a flexible, long-term approach to enzyme replacement, with the potential to discontinue treatment, replace the implant or adapt therapy over time and, ultimately, to broaden the population of children with MPS IIIA who could benefit from disease-modifying treatment. At the same time, the modality represents a departure from conventional enzyme replacement therapies, shifting the paradigm from intermittent administration and associated fluctuations in enzyme exposure with continuous in vivo production.

The Myo-P5A is built on Release Tx’s proprietary ECT platform, developed jointly with UNIGE and Geneva University Hospitals (HUG). The platform integrates genetically engineered immortalised human myoblasts capable of continuously secreting potent, disease-specific therapeutic proteins with the Myo-Pod^®, a patented, biocompatible cell macroencapsulation implant, no larger than a pin. The device’s semi-permeable membrane enables selective, bidirectional diffusion of therapeutic proteins and nutrients while physically isolating the encapsulated cells from the host immune system. In preclinical studies, the platform has demonstrated excellent biocompatibility and sustained therapeutic protein delivery in vivo for more than ten months.

“This award represents important recognition of both our technology and our development strategy,” said Professor Nicolas Mach, Chief Scientific Officer and Co-Founder of Release Tx. “Following the strong preclinical results generated with our lead programme, the Myo-P4, the Innosuisse funding enables us to expand our platform into a second rare, paediatric neurological indication. While therapeutic proteins hold great promise for the treatment of CNS diseases, efficient delivery to the brain remains one of the field’s greatest challenges. Our ECT platform is designed to enable sustained delivery of therapeutic proteins beyond the blood-brain barrier, with the potential to overcome a fundamental limitation that has constrained the treatment of neurological diseases for decades.”

Stéphane Sizonenko, Professor in the Division of Child Development and Growth and Head of the Brain Development and Injury Laboratory at the Faculty of Medicine, UNIGE, said, “For children diagnosed with MPS IIIA, every month matters. The recent approval of the first disease-modifying therapy represents an important advance for patients, but important questions remain around how best to broaden the range of children who can benefit from disease-modifying treatment while reducing treatment burden and improving long-term flexibility. By combining our expertise in developmental brain injury with Release Therapeutics’ encapsulated cell technology platform, we aim to investigate whether continuous, implant-based enzyme delivery can offer a differentiated long-term treatment approach for children affected by this disease.”

About Release Therapeutics
Headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, Release Therapeutics is a privately-held, BioMedTech company developing the first cell macroencapsulation technology designed to deliver potent therapeutic proteins beyond the human blood-brain barrier. The Company’s proprietary technology integrates an implantable macroencapsulation device with an immortalised myoblast cell line capable of producing a broad range of proteins for long-term delivery to the CNS. Innovating at the nexus of biotech and MedTech, Release Therapeutics is on a mission to treat genetic diseases of the CNS without gene therapy. The company’s lead programme is in preclinical development for the treatment of Metachromatic Leukodystrophy (MLD), a rare genetic disorder that leads to progressive loss of myelin and typically affects young children.

For more information, please visit our website: https://www.release-tx.com/

Clarence Peter
Release Therapeutics SA
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contact@release-tx.com
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