CELL AND GENE THERAPY
Sysmex Corporation | May 17, 2021
Sysmex Corporation and ThinkCyte, Inc. announced today the signing of joint development and investment agreements for the commercialization of an AI-based cell analysis technology in May 2021.
The development of novel testing and diagnostic technologies of high clinical utility is being pursued to improve the precision of diagnoses and maximize treatment as healthcare becomes more accurate and personalized at an increased pace - in combination with the advancement of technology. Meanwhile, telehealth, AI-powered medical imaging analysis, and automated testing of robots are all gaining traction in the healthcare industry.
Sysmex has been acquiring technologies for studying cells, genes, and proteins with high accuracy and sensitivity on a proactive basis. A cell analysis platform is one of the technologies that has been used in a variety of Sysmex products. In this field, Sysmex's current emphasis is on developing technologies that specifically analyze cells using different types of information such as cell function and responsiveness, as well as seeking faster cell analysis.
ThinkCyte has "Ghost Cytometry technology," which analyses morphological information of cells in a quick and simple process, while the information gathered by this technology is much richer than what can be collected using conventional flow cytometry (FCM) technique. This technology, in addition to counting and analyzing cells based on their basic morphological features, helps users to identify each cell based on its specific morphological details in terms of its characteristics and functions. This high-resolution analysis will allow for highly accurate clinical condition determination using body fluids such as blood, improve precision in a wide variety of cell-based diagnoses, and contribute to more personalized healthcare.
On March 31, 2021, Sysmex and ThinkCyte signed a memorandum of understanding to begin full-fledged joint development of the novel AI-based cell analysis technology as a result of ongoing collaborative research between the two companies to increase the viability of applying Ghost Cytometry technology to diagnostic techniques of high clinical value. In addition, on May 1, 2021, the two companies agreed to collaborate on joint development, with the aim of commercializing cell analyzers and testing techniques based on Ghost Cytometry technology for cell analysis (including research) in the field of in-vitro diagnostics (IVD). Meanwhile, on May 11, 2021, Sysmex agreed to make an equity investment in ThinkCyte, which will enable the two companies to enhance their strong partnership.
Sysmex and ThinkCyte have formed an alliance to develop novel cell analysis technology and research techniques by combining Sysmex's IVD capabilities with ThinkCyte's proprietary Ghost Cytometry technology, thereby contributing to the advancement and evolution of healthcare around the world.
About Sysmex Corporation
Sysmex works to contribute to the development of healthcare and people's healthy lives in accordance with its goal of "shaping the advancement of healthcare," as described in the Sysmex Group's corporate ideology, the "Sysmex Way." Sysmex performs integrated R&D, manufacturing, and sales, as well as providing support services for its in vitro blood, urine, and other bodily fluids testing instruments, reagents, and software. Sysmex's products are sold to medical institutions in over 190 countries and regions around the world.
Sysmex has been expanding its business in the life science domain in recent years, using proprietary technologies to develop new testing and diagnostic value, provide healthcare personalized to individual patients, and help patients minimize burdens and improve quality of life.
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INDUSTRIAL IMPACT
Serotiny | March 01, 2022
Serotiny, a leader in high-throughput therapeutic Multi-Domain Protein engineering, and Tessera Therapeutics, a biotechnology company pioneering a new approach in genetic medicines known as Gene Writing technology, today announced a collaboration to engineer programmable Gene Writer proteins. This collaboration will build on Tessera’s innovations in genome engineering technologies and apply Serotiny’s tMDP mining and design expertise to further optimize Tessera’s programmable Gene Writer proteins, capable of making diverse and directed alterations to the genome.
“We’re extremely excited to be working with the Tessera team. It provides Serotiny a unique opportunity to extend the validation of our platform and to continue to advance our efforts in discovering and developing proteins with novel function for the purpose of enhancing the therapeutic utility of next-generation genetic medicines.”
Colin Farlow, J.D., Serotiny’s CEO
Tessera’s Gene Writer candidates can allow the substitution, insertion, or deletion of DNA sequences, as well as the writing of entire genes into the genome, offering the potential for a new category of genetic medicines. By partnering with Serotiny, Tessera will have the ability to identify, screen, and optimize a variety of proteins that can serve as the foundation of future Gene Writer therapies across a variety of disease states.
“Tessera’s mission is to cure disease by writing in the code of life and we’re committed to continuously innovating to improve and expand our Gene Writing platform,” said Geoffrey von Maltzahn, PhD, co-founder and CEO of Tessera. “Our R&D engine seeks to learn from billions of years of mobile genetic element evolution to generate novel Gene Writing systems with the ability to solve important challenges in genetic medicine. Serotiny’s multi-domain engineering expertise has the potential to further optimize our Gene Writer protein libraries and we’re delighted to partner with the Serotiny team.”
Under terms of the agreement Serotiny will receive an upfront payment and is eligible for certain future consideration, contingent upon the collaboration achieving pre-specified performance thresholds.
About Serotiny
Serotiny is a pre-clinical discovery company building better gene and cell therapies through high-throughput engineering of therapeutic Multi-Domain Proteins (tMDP) such as Chimeric Antigen Receptors (CARs), CAR alternatives, accessory proteins, and next generation gene editors. At the heart of Serotiny’s technology is a discovery platform that harmonizes computationally aided protein design, high-throughput cellular assays, and next generation sequencing. Serotiny’s platform enables a cross disciplinary approach to engineering large and often unstructured multi-domain proteins, applying expertise from synthetic biology, immunology, machine learning, software engineering and bioinformatics.
About Tessera’s Gene Writer platform
Tessera’s Gene Writer proteins are based on nature’s genome architects, Mobile Genetic Elements (MGEs)—the most abundant class of genes across the tree of life, representing approximately half of the human genome. Tessera has evaluated tens of thousands of natural and synthetic MGEs to create Gene Writer candidates in multiple categories including
RNA Gene Writer proteins that use target-primed reverse transcription (TPRT), which evolved in a class of MGEs known as retrotransposons. TPRT uses three steps to make an alteration: DNA-binding, DNA-nicking (without double strand breaks to DNA), and reverse transcription. Tessera’s Gene Writing technology requires a DNA sequence match at all three steps, reducing the likelihood of off-target editing. Tessera’s Gene Writer components can be delivered as therapeutic compositions comprised of RNA molecules within lipid nanoparticles, offering the potential for scalable, re-dosable genetic medicines with the ability to make the full spectrum of small and large edits to genome, from single or multi-base pair corrections, insertions, deletions, to writing entire genes.
DNA Gene Writer proteins are derived from recombinases and integrases and enable permanent integration of whole-gene sequences, delivered as DNA, into the genome without the introduction of double-strand breaks. This opens up the potential for treating pediatric patients leveraging validated delivery modalities
Tessera’s research engine further optimizes the discovered Gene Writer candidates for efficiency, specificity, and fidelity—essentially compressing eons of evolution into a few months.
About Tessera Therapeutics
Tessera Therapeutics is pioneering Gene Writing technology, which consists of multiple technology platforms designed to offer scientists and clinicians the ability to write therapeutic messages into the human genome, thereby curing diseases at their source. The Gene Writing platform allows the correction of single nucleotides, the deletion or insertion of short sequences of DNA, and the writing of entire genes into the genome, offering the potential for a new category of genetic medicines with broad applications both in vivo and ex vivo. Tessera Therapeutics was founded by Flagship Pioneering, a life sciences enterprise that conceives, resources, and develops first-in-category bioplatform companies to transform human health and sustainability.
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Ginkgo Bioworks | September 11, 2020
Today, Ginkgo Bioworks announced a partnership with Totient, an AI-driven drug discovery company emerging from stealth, to rapidly identify neutralizing antibodies against COVID-19. Through this partnership, Totient will leverage Ginkgo's bioengineering platform to express and screen thousands of antibody candidates with the aim of identifying broadly neutralizing therapeutic antibodies against COVID-19 for further development. Totient leverages tertiary lymphoid structures (TLSs) to identify novel tissue-specific antigens and develop matching high-affinity antibody therapeutics. As the broader scientific community mobilizes to address the coronavirus pandemic, Totient has partnered with Ginkgo to adapt and scale its platform, which has been validated in oncology and autoimmunity, to aid in the effort to discover COVID-19 antibodies. Totient's population-scale antibody discovery platform reconstructs anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies from bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) samples.
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