Houston-based Circurna and Irvine, California-based GATC Health have announced a strategic partnership aimed at accelerating the discovery and optimization of circular RNA therapeutics through advanced artificial intelligence technology. The collaboration will apply GATC Health's AI platform to enhance Circurna's proprietary ciRNA platform, marking a significant development in next-generation RNA therapeutics.
Circular RNA's Therapeutic Potential
According to the companies, circular RNA is emerging as a next-generation therapeutic modality due to its ability to offer both enhanced stability and protein expression compared to traditional messenger RNA (mRNA). The ciRNA platform delivers enhanced stability, prolonged protein expression, and greater potency compared to linear RNA, enabling the creation of targeted and durable treatments ranging from protein therapeutics and antibodies to multi-payload constructs.
Circurna is developing therapeutics with broad potential across oncology, autoimmune disorders, and select high-impact infectious diseases. The company, which was spun out from the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, is backed by the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) through its prestigious ReVAMP grant in collaboration with 13 leading institutions.
AI-Powered Optimization Strategy
The GATC AI platform will be tasked with optimizing key components of Circurna's therapeutic portfolio, including validated lipid nanoparticle designs for thermostability, targeting ligands for specific cell and tissue delivery, and improved payload candidates.
"Circurna represents an exciting innovation in RNA science, and their choice of GATC will accelerate their path to success in this rapidly evolving field," said Jayson Uffens, co-founder and chief technology officer of GATC Health. "By applying our innovative AI models to Circurna's cutting-edge ciRNA platform, we expect to help them unlock faster timelines, greater precision, and ultimately, a stronger position in the rapidly evolving RNA field."
GATC Health's Technology Platform
GATC Health operates through its Multiomics Advanced Technology (MAT) platform, which simulates complex human biology to predict how drugs will perform in the body. The platform achieves 87% accuracy in forecasting sensitivity and 91% accuracy in predicting specificity, representing an 11x improvement over industry benchmarks while analyzing 400 trillion biological data points in minutes.
Partnership Terms and Industry Context
The terms of the agreement specify that GATC Health will receive a combination of cash and equity compensation, in addition to milestone-based incentive payments. This partnership represents part of a broader trend of AI integration in pharmaceutical research and development.
The collaboration comes at a time when RNA-based medicines have been particularly prominent in the news, especially following the US Department of Health and Human Services announcement in August 2025 that it was launching a coordinated wind-down of all mRNA vaccine development activities under the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA).
The partnership between Circurna and GATC Health demonstrates the continued innovation in RNA therapeutics beyond traditional mRNA approaches, with circular RNA technology offering potential advantages in stability and expression that could address current limitations in the field.
