Seongnam, South Korea – September 09, 2026 -- Rznomics Inc. (KOSDAQ: 476830) has achieved up to a seven-fold increase in circular RNA (circRNA) production efficiency through engineering upgrades to its proprietary Self-Targeting and Splicing (STS) platform, according to peer-reviewed research published in Nucleic Acids Research on September 4, 2026.
Optimized STS method doubles circularization efficiency versus industry-standard PIE technique
In tests using Factor VIII RNA measuring approximately 7.8 kilo-nucleotides in length, the upgraded STS approach delivered roughly twice the circularization efficiency of the widely used Permuted Intron–Exon (PIE) method, a standard benchmark in circRNA manufacturing. The finding directly addresses a persistent industry constraint: circularization efficiency typically drops as RNA length increases, limiting the size of genes that can be produced at commercial scale.
Researchers pinpoint target-site selection as critical yield driver
The Rznomics team systematically screened target sites for self-circularization and found that efficiency varied significantly depending on location within the same RNA sequence, even when the base sequence was unchanged. Engineers then modified the P1 construct governing the self-circularization reaction by sequentially adding a short polyA10 sequence and an antisense sequence to strengthen target-site binding, yielding the seven-fold efficiency gain over the original STS design.
Technology extends viable circRNA production to genes approaching 8 kilo-nucleotides
CircRNA's covalently closed-loop structure gives it superior resistance to enzymatic degradation compared with conventional linear RNA, positioning it as a candidate platform for vaccines and protein therapeutics. The combined target-site selection and P1 engineering strategy demonstrated efficient production not just for short RNA sequences but also for large constructs nearing 8 kilo-nucleotides, a size range previously difficult to manufacture at scale.
Dr. Kyung Hyun Lee, first and co-corresponding author of the study, said the work establishes a foundation for producing circRNA efficiently and robustly even from large RNA molecules, potentially broadening the modality's application range. Dr. Seong-Wook Lee, CEO of Rznomics and co-corresponding author, said the milestone strengthens the company's proprietary circRNA platform for practical use and that Rznomics plans to expand its application across therapeutic areas, including CAR-T cell therapies.