Touchlight Genetics and Stonehaven Incubate form Touchlight Aquaculture
Published: 29 September 2020
London, England / Andermatt, Switzerland – 29 September 2020
Touchlight Genetics LLC and Stonehaven Incubate AG have formed a new joint venture company, Touchlight Aquaculture LLC, to combine expertise, intellectual property and platform technology.
The new company will utilize Touchlight Genetics’ innovative DNA-based Doggybonetm platform to develop new vaccine solutions, focused on providing solutions exclusively in the field of aquaculture. Touchlight’s technology provides a unique, synthetic DNA vector system in combination with an enzymatic process, allowing for larger scale commercial production, at a significantly lower cost.
DNA vaccines have the potential to enable cost-efficient, safe and more effective immunisation with shorter production timelines, improving availability. DNA vaccines have already been shown to be safe and effective with approvals already granted for veterinary use. However, these have shown some limitations in terms of commercial scalability, which resulted in limited widespread adoption.
Stonehaven Incubate is the only global business incubator focused on identifying cutting edge technologies developed to improve human health and creating stand-alone companies to apply those for animal health.
Touchlight is a biotechnology company which concentrates on the discovery and development of human DNA-based genetic medicines. The company’s technology has the potential to revolutionise the production and utilisation of DNA-based assets across multiple therapeutic areas, and this is their first application in the veterinary field.
“We are delighted to be working with an established and proven leader in DNA vaccine technologies, and now applying this in a field seeking innovation and advancement. Aquaculture has a critical role in addressing the protein gap created by the rapidly expanding global population, which is expected to reach 9 billion by 2050. With a large percentage of global fish stock lost to infectious disease annually, there is growing awareness of the need for more cost-effective vaccine options.” Dr. Heffernan also noted, “Touchlight Aquaculture will be at the forefront in disease prevention in this high growth industry that is strategically very important to us at Stonehaven Incubate.”
Dr. Mark Heffernan CEO of Stonehaven Incubate,
“There has never been greater need to deploy effective vaccines at global scale, whether in humans or in animals.DNA vaccines are the future thanks to their potential to enable efficient and safe immunisation on a large scale. We are excited to use our technology to support the aquaculture sector, and with Stonehaven Incubate we have a partner with proven expertise in animal health.”
Jonny Ohlson, CEO of Touchlight
About Touchlight
Touchlight is an innovation-driven leading CDMO pioneering enzymatic GMP DNA production to enable the genetic medicine revolution. As pioneers, with an FDA Drug Master File accepted in 2022 followed in 2025 with the world’s first cell-free DNA GMP license, Touchlight’s enzymatic DNA technology is on the cutting edge of AAV, mRNA, DNA vaccine, and gene editing technology with its state-of-the-art facility recognised by ISPE’s Facility of the Year Awards (FOYA) for Innovation.
With multiple client products already in the clinic, Touchlight’s evidence-based, synthetic DNA manufacturing solutions offer a scalable, sustainable alternative to plasmid DNA (pDNA) for all stages of pre-clinical, clinical and commercial development. The company and technology are built on the conviction that DNA is fundamental to the future of medicine. Traditional methods, based on bacterial fermentation, are slow, costly, and unable to meet the growing demands of genetic medicine due to limited scalability and speed. Founded in 2007, Touchlight’s team is inspired by breakthroughs in genetic medicine, recognising the urgent need for innovative DNA production techniques to support the future of genetic therapies.
For more information please contact:
Karen Fallen, Chief Executive Officer
Verna McErlane, Chief Commercial Officer
E: info@touchlight.com
T: +44 20 8481 9200
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