Voyager’s journey to identify a new shuttle for bringing gene therapies into the brain

Voyager has taken two steps toward safer and more effective systemic delivery of new CNS gene therapies. First, the company has found capsids that cross the blood-brain barrier while simultaneously de-targeting the liver; and second, it’s worked backwards to identify the cell surface receptor used by the capsids for brain entry.

Voyager Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ:VYGR) reported at this year’s American Society of Gene & Cell Therapy (ASGCT) annual meeting its method of finding a family of capsids that cross the blood-brain barrier (BBB) and how it identified the receptor — ALPL — that the capsids use to do so...