Cell and Gene Therapy
prnewswire | September 14, 2023
Ceres Nanosciences, a global leader in developing wastewater testing methods based on its Nanotrap® technology, and Ginkgo Bioworks which is building the leading platform for cell programming and biosecurity, today announced that they are partnering to bring pathogen monitoring capabilities to laboratories around the world. Pathogen monitoring and analysis capabilities, including in wastewater, are designed to help public health institutions address regional biosecurity challenges.
Supported by the NIH RADx Initiative, Ceres developed their Nanotrap technology for robust, sensitive, and time-saving methods to detect a wide range of pathogens in wastewater samples and has deployed those methods to a network of testing sites in the United States. These sites provide wastewater testing services nationwide to deliver valuable public health data, such as information about the relative abundance of COVID-19 variant groups over time in a community's wastewater, to the CDC's National Wastewater Surveillance System and to state, local, and Tribal decision makers.
Recently, Concentric by Ginkgo, the biosecurity unit of Ginkgo Bioworks, as part of a CDC program, demonstrated in a study with partners from XPresCheck and Louisiana State University that coupling Ceres' aircraft wastewater testing methods with Concentric's analysis can enable early detection of variants of SARS-CoV-2. San Francisco International Airport was the first airport to announce that it will continuously monitor airplane wastewater samples as part of a CDC program operated by Concentric and XpresCheck.
Under the partnership between Ceres and Concentric, labs in countries where Concentric has biosecurity programs receive on-site training and the materials needed to implement the standardized and proven wastewater testing workflow from Ceres. Labs also receive biosecurity tools and data infrastructure to leverage automation, data analysis, bioinformatics capabilities, and other critical genomic sequencing technologies.
Together, Ceres and Concentric have set up labs in the Middle East and Africa through this collaboration, offering a cutting-edge approach to biosurveillance technologies and capacity building for labs around the world that are part of Concentric's global pathogen monitoring network.
"Under our NIH RADx Initiative, we demonstrated that we can quickly stand up improved wastewater testing capabilities for labs that are experts or novices in the space," said Robbie Barbero, Chief Business Officer at Ceres Nanosciences. "We are delighted now to be partnering with a global leader like Concentric to build a robust public health framework worldwide."
"Ceres Nanosciences has been a terrific partner in developing effective and innovative methods for identifying pathogens in wastewater," said Matt McKnight, General Manager, Biosecurity at Ginkgo Bioworks. "By combining their laboratory expertise with our global footprint, we are building a robust global biological radar to prevent, detect, and respond to biological threats."
About Ceres Nanosciences, Inc.
Ceres Nanosciences is a privately held company, located in Northern Virginia, focused on incorporating its proprietary Nanotrap® particle technology into a range of diagnostic and research use products and workflows. Nanotrap particles capture, concentrate, and preserve low abundance analytes from biological samples, enabling early and accurate detection of diseases. The Nanotrap particle technology was developed with support from the National Institutes of Health, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Schmidt Futures, the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Commonwealth of Virginia.
About Ginkgo Bioworks
Ginkgo Bioworks is the leading horizontal platform for cell programming, providing flexible, end-to-end services that solve challenges for organizations across diverse markets, from food and agriculture to pharmaceuticals to industrial and specialty chemicals. Ginkgo's biosecurity and public health unit, Concentric by Ginkgo, is building global infrastructure for biosecurity to empower governments, communities, and public health leaders to prevent, detect and respond to a wide variety of biological threats.
Read More
Medical
businesswire | September 21, 2023
AbCellera announced that it has expanded its existing multi-target collaboration with Regeneron to discover therapeutic antibodies for up to eight targets selected by Regeneron, increased from the original four.
“Having successfully delivered on two challenging discovery campaigns under the original agreement, we are excited to expand the scope of our collaboration with Regeneron to include up to four additional targets,” said Carl Hansen, Ph.D., founder and CEO of AbCellera. “We look forward to using our antibody discovery and development engine to bolster Regeneron’s preclinical portfolio and help identify promising candidates for their programs.”
The collaboration, which began in March 2020, leverages AbCellera’s antibody discovery engine and Regeneron’s VelocImmune® mice to identify novel therapeutic antibodies. AbCellera has initiated programs for all four of the original targets, with Regeneron exercising its rights to advance antibody candidates into further preclinical development for the two programs that have been completed.
Under the terms of the agreement, Regeneron has the right to develop and commercialize therapeutic antibodies resulting from the collaboration. AbCellera receives research payments and is eligible to receive downstream clinical and regulatory milestone payments and royalties on net sales of products.
About AbCellera Biologics Inc.
AbCellera is breaking the barriers of conventional antibody drug discovery to bring better medicines to patients, sooner. AbCellera’s engine integrates expert teams, technology, and facilities with the data science and automation needed to propel antibody-based medicines from target to clinic in nearly every therapeutic area with precision and speed. AbCellera provides innovative biotechs and leading pharmaceutical companies with a competitive advantage that empowers them to move quickly, reduce cost, and tackle the toughest problems in drug development.
Read More
Medical
PR Newswire | October 12, 2023
Ichnos Sciences, a global clinical-stage biotechnology company developing innovative multispecific antibodies for oncology, announced that the company has entered into an exclusive worldwide licensing agreement for its OX40 antagonist monoclonal antibody portfolio with Astria Therapeutics, a biopharmaceutical company developing therapies for rare allergic and immunological diseases. With the execution of this agreement, Ichnos has successfully licensed its two assets for inflammatory and immunological diseases, a key milestone in the company's prioritization of its pipeline of oncology drug candidates.
Within the terms of the agreement, Astria will assume full cost and responsibility for the global development and commercialization of the licensed therapeutic program for all indications. In exchange, Ichnos will receive up to $320 million in upfront, development, regulatory and sales milestone payments in addition to up to low double-digit royalties. Ichnos has also agreed to allow Astria to draw down on its existing investigational drug substance and drug product stocks at normalized costs to facilitate development.
Telazorlimab is a novel, humanized IgG1 monoclonal antibody that targets OX40 on T cells responsible for inflammation and immunity diseases. Excessive OX40 signaling, expressed on activated T cells, is the feature of several inflammatory diseases, including atopic dermatitis (AD). Astria plans to develop an affinity-matured version of telazorlimab and apply YTE half-life extension technology to create a product that aims to address the need for a safe, effective, and infrequently administered AD treatment.
"As Ichnos continues to grow as a biotechnology company, this agreement enables our team to focus on advancing our robust pipeline of clinical-stage multispecific antibodies in oncology generated by our proprietary BEAT® platform1, as well as continue the discovery and development of our NK-cell engaging programs for solid tumors," said Cyril Konto, M.D., President and CEO of Ichnos. "I am proud of the work achieved by the Ichnos team in successfully completing the Phase 2b with telazorlimab in atopic dermatitis and potentially opening up a new therapeutic class for this disease. Ichnos is confident in Astria Therapeutics' capabilities and vision for pursuing the development of its OX40 program and delivering a potentially life-changing treatment to patients with inflammatory and immune diseases."
"We are looking forward to building on the foundational work that Ichnos has done with their OX40 portfolio," said Jill Milne, Ph.D., co-founder and CEO of Astria Therapeutics. "We believe that by using Ichnos' affinity-matured next generation monoclonal antibody OX40 antagonist and applying YTE half-life extension technology, we have the potential to deliver a best-in-class profile for atopic dermatitis patients; one that we think can be safe, effective, and long-acting. In addition to OX40 antagonism already being a clinically validated mechanism in atopic dermatitis, we also are excited about the opportunity for potential expansion into additional indications."
About Ichnos Sciences Inc.
A fully integrated, global biotech with the spirit of a start-up, Ichnos is shifting the way the world thinks about innovation in medicine through its research and development of transformative, disease-centric treatments in oncology. The company, with headquarters in New York, N.Y., is rapidly advancing a clinical-stage pipeline of novel, first-in-class candidates designed to address complex diseases and to treat patients holistically. With its patented BEAT® technology platform and pioneering teams, Ichnos Sciences has a mission to provide breakthrough, curative therapies that will extend and improve lives, writing a new chapter in healthcare.
Read More