CRO and Drug Discovery
We live for science
Team & Science
Synovo's team of around 40 scientists spans medicinal chemistry, pharmacology, immunology, analytics, biochemistry, and neurology. Many have been with the company for years, and the work they do for partners is the same work they do on Synovo's own programs. That overlap is what makes the science move.
We call the way we operate TeamScience: chemists, biologists, and pharmacologists working the same problem together rather than handing it down a chain. A question raised in an in vivo model finds its way back into the next round of synthesis. A result in one program sharpens the design of another. The result is science that holds together, programs that move forward, and partnerships that last.
Quality
Quality at Synovo rests on two things: data that is robust and reproducible, and the culture, infrastructure, and processes that keep it that way. We work to be fast, friendly, and flexible, and management holds itself to the standard it asks of the team. We meet customer and regulatory requirements, verify results through routine quality controls, and review the system continuously.
Synovo operates a quality management system certified to DIN EN ISO 9001:2015 across its Tübingen sites.
Philosophy
Many of the diseases that shape modern medicine, from inflammation and cardiovascular disease to atherosclerosis, oncology, and the degenerative conditions of mid-life, share more than they appear to. Beneath distinct clinical labels lies a common biology of chronic inflammation, immune dysregulation, and progressive loss of tissue resilience.
Synovo works at that convergence. We aim to intervene early, guided by biomarkers, with therapies that deliver near-term benefit and long-term disease-modifying potential, whether the target is an inflammatory driver, a vascular lesion, or a tumour microenvironment.
This scientific stance shapes how we work with partners. Synovo runs as a contract research organization and a discovery company at once, and the combination is deliberate. Advancing our own programs in inflammation-driven disease means our scientists aren't running assays as a service. They're doing the same kind of work on their own compounds, with the same uncertainty and the same stakes. The instincts that come from that, knowing when an effect is real, when a model is misbehaving, when a result is worth chasing, are what we bring to every partner project.
We call this way of working TeamScience: chemists, biologists, and pharmacologists working the same problem together, challenging each other's assumptions, and letting the data redirect the plan. It's why our longest collaborations have lasted decades, and why partners who come to us for one program tend to come back for the next.
Our philosophy emphasizes integrity, transparency, and partnership — with clients and within our community — to ensure solutions that truly advance health outcomes and benefit society.
Michael Burnet
Locations
Synovo is based in Tübingen, Germany, across three sites in one of Europe's most active life-science clusters. Our facilities bring together laboratories, offices, and the preclinical infrastructure behind every program we run, from partner-funded studies to our own discovery pipeline.
Our teams span pharmacology, medicinal chemistry, analytical sciences, and formulation, and they work side by side rather than in silos. That proximity, scientific and physical, is what makes integrated drug discovery work.