Using our innovative antibody know-how to enhance the power of nature

eCMSadmin — Mon, 13 Sep 2021 00:00:00 +0000

David Humphreys, Discovery Science

eCMSadmin Mon 13/09/2021 - 02:00

Together with researchers at the University of Southampton, ��ֳ� used its antibody expertise and innovative protein engineering to harness part of the human immune system known as the complement cascade to enhance the natural ability of therapeutic antibodies to attack blood cancer cells.

Recently published in Communications Biology (part of the Nature portfolio) the new technology builds on previous research from ��ֳ� and harnesses a natural feature found at the end of Immunoglobulin M (IgM), an antibody with naturally high levels of complement activation, called a ‘tailpiece’. The tailpiece critically contributes to the formation of IgM hexamers. Antibody hexamerisation is a critical feature for activation of the complement system to attack cancer cells. By making a subtle modification to the tailpiece it enabled the Immunoglobulin G (IgG) - which is preferred for the treatment of human diseases - to retain its desirable properties but also take on the hexameric properties of IgM when bound to the target cell. This approach combines the best features of both antibody types into a single molecule and may open the way for a potential new class of treatments.

The new method was shown to be effective in several different antibodies. This makes it potentially attractive as a ‘plug-and-play’ modification tool to improve the performance of existing antibodies or create ‘bio-betters’ from existing therapeutics. To read more, the full (open access) paper can be accessed here.

The research was the product of a UKRI government-��ֳ� co-funded PhD studentship collaboration (BBSRC grant BB/N5039927/1) between blood cancer experts at the University of Southampton and antibody engineering experts at ��ֳ�.

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The pursuit of continuous innovation

eCMSadmin — Wed, 08 Sep 2021 00:00:00 +0000

The pursuit of continuous innovation

Dhaval Patel, Patient Value Early Solutions

eCMSadmin Wed 08/09/2021 - 02:00

From unlocking the secrets of chemicals, cultivating the promises of pharmaceuticals and expanding into biologics, peptides and gene therapy, our researchers at ��ֳ� are on a mission to continuously innovate. To do that, we are harnessing today’s new frontiers in science and technology and strengthening our capabilities to discover and develop new medicines. So, it should come as no surprise that we are utilising some unique disruptive technology to help strengthen our gene therapy activities.

We recently signed an agreement with CEVEC Pharmaceuticals to evaluate and gain access to their ELEVECTA® technology. ELEVECTA® technology may enable ��ֳ� to develop a scalable, robust and efficient manufacturing of gene therapy vectors. Up until now, manufacturing of adeno-associated viral vectors (AAVs) has been an expensive and challenging process usually requiring multiple batches of transient transfection of cells lines and large quantities of cGMP-quality plasmids. The CEVEC technology overcomes these limitations based on producer cell-lines which have all the necessary elements for AAV production integrated in one cell. This enables superior, efficient, high-performance, industry scale AAV production from one cell line with consistent quality.

At ��ֳ� we have world class discovery, research, development and manufacturing facilities and to maintain this position we will continuously monitor new and disruptive technologies in the pursuit of innovation.

You can read more about our R&D global footprint and explore the gene therapy opportunities at ��ֳ� by visiting our recruitment page here.

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R&D R&D Gene Therapy ELEVECTA CEVEC AAV

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Using our innovative antibody know-how to enhance the power of nature

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The pursuit of continuous innovation

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