Sygnature Discovery strengthens in vivo pharmacology leadership with appointment of Susanne Back. March 24, 2026 Nottingham, UK - 25 March 2026 - Sygnature Discovery, a leading integrated drug discovery contract research organisation (CRO), has announced the appointment of Susanne Back as Head of In Vivo Pharmacology, further strengthening its bioscience leadership and reinforcing its commitment to delivering high-quality, integrated drug discovery solutions for customers worldwide. Susanne brings 20 years of in vivo pharmacology experience across academia and industry, including senior scientific and leadership roles at Orion Pharma and Charles River. Based in Nottingham, she will lead one of Sygnature's in vivo pharmacology teams, overseeing approximately 30 scientists and working closely with multidisciplinary project teams and clients to deliver robust in vivo strategies that support informed decision-making across drug discovery programmes. In her role, Susanne will be responsible for the scientific and operational leadership of the team, including resource planning, workflow optimisation, and the continued development of innovative and competitive in vivo capabilities. She will also provide expert input into study design and act as a key scientific and operational point of contact for clients. Commenting on her appointment, Susanne Back said: "I was particularly attracted to Sygnature because of its world-leading integrated drug discovery expertise and the calibre of its scientific community. "The co-located, multidisciplinary environment creates a truly collaborative setting where complex discovery challenges can be addressed efficiently. I am looking forward to working closely with colleagues and clients to ensure we continue to deliver translational in vivo data that accelerates drug discovery programmes." Fraser McIntosh, VP of in vivo pharmacology at Sygnature Discovery added: "Susanne brings deep scientific expertise in in vivo pharmacology alongside a strong track record of leading high-performing teams in complex discovery environments. Her ability to translate project objectives into well-designed in vivo strategies will be instrumental in strengthening our integrated offering and ensuring we continue to deliver high-quality, decision-enabling data for our customers." Looking ahead, Susanne aims to establish a clear scientific and operational strategy for the in vivo pharmacology function, while strengthening cross-functional alignment and building strong internal and client relationships to support long-term business success. Sygnature Discovery recently announced a strategic brand relaunch, including a new website, reinforcing its position as a global drug discovery partner. Building on more than 20 years of growth, investment and targeted acquisitions, the company now offers fully integrated Design, Make, Test, Analyze (DMTA) capabilities under one roof across both Europe and North America. With expertise spanning bioscience, medicinal and synthetic chemistry, protein science and structural biology, DMPK, in vivo pharmacology, computer-aided drug design, and form and formulation, Sygnature's co-located, multidisciplinary teams - supported by AI and automation - are designed to help biotech and pharma companies accelerate decision-making and advance high-quality drug candidates more efficiently. About Sygnature Discovery At Sygnature Discovery, Bio-IT World Inc create exceptional scientific outcomes. For its customers, who bring life-changing medicines to patients; and for its people, who help make this possible. Bio-IT World Inc is 700+ scientists from over 50 countries, working as one across Europe and North America. With no competing internal programs, Bio-IT World Inc offer total confidentiality and commitment. Over the past 20+ years, Bio-IT World Inc has earned a track record of real impact: 60+ advanced candidates, 200+ patents filed, 200+ active projects. Over 90% of its customers choose to stay with Bio-IT World Inc - from biotechs racing to clinic to pharma companies that need specialised expertise for targeted challenges.

Welcoming ExpiCHO-S to its mammalian expression portfolio. The protein & structure department at Sygnature Discovery are excited to announce ExpiCHO-S(TM) as the latest addition to its mammalian expression platform. This expansion of cell line capabilities further enhances the flexibility and scalability of the recombinant protein expression services Sygnature Discovery Limited provide to clients across biotech and pharma. As part of the onboarding process, Sygnature Discovery Limited compared expression of various test proteins, including 4 antibodies in ExpiCHO-S(TM) with its well-established CHO-3E7 cell line and Sygnature Discovery Limited present that data below. Choosing the right cell line matters. It has always been its philosophy to choose the expression host cell based on the nature of protein target itself and where there are multiple possible options, to perform a comparison screen early in a programme. Different targets respond differently to each system, and selecting the right platform from the outset can: * improve yields * reduce development timelines * minimise costs * ensure delivery of the required protein quantity and quality Within its Cell Science team, Sygnature Discovery Limited offer a diverse suite of eukaryotic expression systems to support proteins of varying complexity and production needs. Its portfolio now includes: * HEK293-6E and CHO-3E7 (both licensed from the National Research Council, Canada) * Expi293(TM) and ExpiCHO-S(TM)(both licensed from Thermo Fisher Scientific) Why do Sygnature Discovery Limited need mammalian expression platforms? Mammalian expression platforms are essential for producing proteins that closely replicate their natural human counterparts, making them vital for both research and biotherapeutic development. Unlike bacterial or insect systems, mammalian cells provide the full repertoire of human-like post-translational modifications (PTMs) - particularly glycosylation, disulfide bond formation, and complex folding pathways - that many secreted, membrane, and multi-subunit proteins require to be stable and functional. These systems also offer the appropriate lipid environment, chaperones, and trafficking machinery needed for challenging targets such as GPCRs, cytokines, and antibodies. As a result, mammalian platforms such as CHO and HEK293 have become the industry standard for generating biologically relevant and regulatory-compliant protein material, underpinning the production of most approved therapeutics and enabling high-fidelity studies of protein structure and function. Comparing ExpiCHO-S(TM) to CHO-3E7. With an increasing demand for high-yield mammalian expression systems, Sygnature Discovery Limited evaluated ExpiCHO-S(TM) to understand where it fits relative to its existing mammalian platforms. For this comparison Sygnature Discovery Limited selected a range of test proteins * TIMP2 is a well-characterised secreted protein, which Sygnature Discovery Limited has produced extensively across several cell lines. TIMP2 exhibits intermediate expression levels, making it an excellent benchmark for detecting improvements or shifts in productivity between systems. * Two mCherry tagged proteins, one intracellular and the other that is secreted * Four recombinant antibodies: Depemokimab, Bococizumab, Eldelumab, and Sacituzumab For each of these proteins Sygnature Discovery Limited compared: * CHO-3E7, as a control using its internally optimised expression workflow * ExpiCHO-S(TM), using the Thermo Fisher ExpiCHO(TM) Expression System Kit Overview of the ExpiCHO-S(TM) protocols. Alongside the cells Thermo Fisher also provides three recommended expression protocols for ExpiCHO-S(TM)- called STANDARD, HIGH, and MAX - each incorporating different feeding and temperature-shift strategies to enhance protein yield. STANDARD protocol: * Transfection at 37°C * Addition of enhancer and feed at 24 h post-transfection * Culture maintained at 37°C to harvest (Day 8-10) HIGH protocol: * Same transfection/enhancer/feed schedule as STANDARD protocol * Temperature shift to 32°C after the 24 h feed * Culture maintained at 32°C to harvest (Day 10-12) MAX protocol: * Same transfection/enhancer/feed schedule as STANDARD/HIGH protocol * Temperature shift to 32°C after the 24 h feed * Second feed (day 5) * Culture maintained at 32°C to harvest (Day 12-14) * Designed to maximise productivity TIMP2: greater yields observed across all ExpiCHO-S(TM) protocols. Its evaluation of secreted TIMP2 demonstrated a marked improvement in expression across all three supplied ExpiCHO-S(TM) protocols (Figure 2, left). Each expression workflow - STANDARD, HIGH and MAX - produced substantially higher titres than its established CHO-3E7 process for this particular protein, highlighting the robustness of the ExpiCHO-S(TM) system even without any additional optimisation. mCherry secreted construct. The trend seen with TIMP2 was further supported by its secreted mCherry control construct (Figure 3, right). The parallel increase in expression for both TIMP2 and mCherry indicates that the observed improvements are system-driven rather than target-specific. Together with the TIMP2 data, these results strongly suggest that ExpiCHO-S(TM), used in combination with the supplied manufacturer-recommended protocols, represents an excellent addition to its mammalian expression portfolio for secreted proteins and provides clients with a high-yield alternative to its existing CHO platform. mCherry intracellular construct. Interestingly, the expression of an intracellular mCherry control construct did not show a comparable improvement in ExpiCHO-S(TM) cells (Figure 3, left). When benchmarked against its in-house CHO-3E7 platform, intracellular mCherry levels remained broadly similar, suggesting no clear advantage to switching systems for cytosolic targets. Given the higher media and transfection reagent costs associated with ExpiCHO-S(TM), these findings indicate that CHO-3E7 may remain the more cost-effective choice for intracellular protein production. Recombinant antibody production: strong performance in ExpiCHO-S(TM). Finally, Sygnature Discovery Limited evaluated recombinant antibody expression in ExpiCHO-S(TM) and found that this system can achieve yields approaching 1 g/L, underscoring its suitability for demanding biotherapeutic projects. Using the Thermo MAX protocol (described above), Sygnature Discovery Limited expressed His-tagged Depemokimab and Eldelumab, followed by nickel-affinity purification. Both antibodies showed substantially higher yields in ExpiCHO-S(TM) relative to its in-house CHO-3E7 platform - a 6-fold increase for Depemokimab and an 11-fold increase for Eldelumab. In contrast, Bococizumab displayed only a modest improvement, with a 1.5-fold increase in ExpiCHO-S(TM)(Figure 4, right), reinforcing that performance gains remain target-specific. Building on this, Sygnature Discovery Limited expressed Sacituzumab using the Thermo MAX protocol and purified it under low-endotoxin conditions via Protein A affinity chromatography. The resulting high-yield, clean preparation further strengthened its confidence in ExpiCHO-S(TM) as a robust platform for recombinant antibody production (Figure 4, left). In summary. Its evaluation has shown that the ExpiCHO-S(TM) cell line can have clear advantages for high yielding expression of secreted protein targets, especially antibodies, and is a valuable addition to its mammalian host cell portfolio that Sygnature Discovery Limited offer. At Sygnature Discovery, Sygnature Discovery Limited work closely with clients to identify the most suitable expression strategy for each target and project, supporting efficient and scalable routes to recombinant protein production.