DiNABIOS has been selected as an associated partner in MAGIC, a Horizon Europe-funded consortium developing next-generation gene therapies for rare neuromuscular diseases. The collaboration positions DiNABIOS at the translational frontier of gene therapy research, contributing its human tissue engineering expertise to one of Europe’s most ambitious rare disease programmes.

DiNABIOS, a life-science company specializing in human Engineered Heart Tissue (EHT) technology and human-relevant preclinical research platforms, today announced its participation in the MAGIC consortium (Next-Generation Models and Genetic Therapies for Rare Neuromuscular Diseases; Horizon Europe grant no. 101080690). Coordinated by INSERM (France), MAGIC unites 16 partners across 10 countries — including leading academic institutions, clinical centres, biotech SMEs, and patient advocacy groups — with the shared goal of developing the next generation of gene therapies for rare muscular diseases.

The target diseases of the consortium Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD), LMNA-related congenital muscular dystrophy (L-CMD), COL6-related muscular dystrophy (UCMD), and X-linked Centronuclear Myopath (XLCNM) affect children from birth or early childhood, progressively impairing mobility, respiratory function, and cardiac health. Despite recent advances, including the first FDA-approved gene therapy for DMD, no approved gene therapy exists in Europe for any of these conditions. MAGIC addresses this gap by building advanced human Engineered Muscle Models and engineering highly specific viral vectors, moving pre-clinical development away from conventional animal-based screening towards scalable, human-relevant platforms.

DiNABIOS contributes within WP7 (Bioprocessing and Advanced Pre-clinical Translation), applying its human based EHT technology and DiNAQUBE™ automated measurement platform as an end-to-end solution to phenotype cardiac and skeletal muscle tissue models.

“MAGIC represents exactly the kind of translational consortium where our platform creates genuine scientific value. Gene therapy vectors must be validated not only in skeletal muscle but also in the cardiac tissue of patients who carry the same genetic defect. Our EHT technology and DiNAQUBE™ platform are purpose-built for this kind of functional, human-relevant assessment – and contributing to a programme of this ambition is a significant step for DiNABIOS.”

Dr. Alexandra Rhoden

CEO of DiNABIOS

“Joining MAGIC is strategically important for us beyond a single project. The collaboration gives us insights to world-leading expertise in skeletal muscle disease modelling and hiPSC differentiation, which we are actively integrating into our own platform. At the same time, it places DiNABIOS within a high-visibility European research network at a moment when the gene therapy field urgently needs better, more human-relevant pre-clinical tools.”

Dr. Marcel Grunert

COO of DiNABIOS

About MAGIC

MAGIC (101080690) is a 48-month Horizon Europe research project coordinated by INSERM and University College London (UCL). The consortium brings together 16 partners from France, Germany, the Netherlands, Ireland, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, the UK, Portugal, and the USA. For more information: magic-horizon.eu

About DiNABIOS

DiNABIOS is an innovative life-science company focused on advancing drug development and preclinical research with human-relevant tissue technologies. Its core platform Engineered Heart Tissue (EHT) from human iPSC-derived cardiomyocytes combined with the DiNAQUBE™ automated measurement platform and DINALYTIQS™ analytics solution, enables GLP-compliant, high-throughput cardiac safety testing, disease modelling, and personalized medicine applications in an end-to-end solution. For more information: dinabios.com

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