BASEL, Switzerland and
TÜBINGEN, Germany, July 7, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- BioCopy AG announces
a collaboration with Immatics N.V. (NASDAQ: IMTX) "Immatics" in the
field of characterization of T cell receptors (TCRs). T cell
receptors and their interactions with peptide-HLA complexes (human
leukocyte antigen) play a crucial role for the human immune system
in the recognition of tumors, among other things.
Cancer represents one of the most frequent causes of death and
thus one of the greatest challenges of modern medicine. Therefore,
it is not only necessary but crucial to develop advanced therapies.
For this reason, BioCopy has developed an innovative technology
that enables high-throughput screening of T cell receptors for
binding to a wide variety of peptide-HLA complexes. With this
technology BioCopy is contributing a safety screening for novel
TCR-based cancer cell therapies.
The extension of BioCopy's highly innovative screening platform
to provide insight into T cell responses in addition to B-cell
responses is a valuable milestone for BioCopy. During the last
months, BioCopy has been working to develop this globally unique
screening, and a patent application has already been filed on the
technology. The goal of this collaboration is to enable the
characterization of more than 5,000 different TCR-peptide-HLA
interactions simultaneously. This ultra-high-throughput approach
could significantly accelerate the development of T cell based
cancer therapies by facilitating large pre-clinical safety
screenings.
Rainer Böhm, Member of the Board of Directors of BioCopy
comments: "With its newly patented technology for T cell therapies,
BioCopy completes its innovative molecular-interaction screening
platform and is one of only a few companies in the world to support
targeted therapy development via both pathways of the immune
response (B- and T cell response). With its innovative technology
platform, BioCopy addresses two booming billion-dollar markets -
infectious diseases and oncology."
Immatics combines the discovery of true targets for cancer
immunotherapies with the development of the right T cell receptors
with the goal of enabling a robust and specific T cell response
against these targets. The BioCopy technology will be implemented
as part of Immatics' XCEPTOR® platform, which delivers highly
specific TCRs for the development of Adoptive Cell Therapies and
TCR Bispecifics.
"Making sure that our TCRs do not cross-react with other tissues
than the targeted cancer is very important in the development of
our TCR-based immunotherapies", says Dominik Maurer, Vice President and Global Head
of Immunology at Immatics. "BioCopy's screening platform and
expertise has produced promising early results. We are looking
forward to combining their screening platform with our XCEPTOR®
platform to further advance our pre-clinical product candidates and
deliver the power of T cells to cancer patients."
About BioCopy:
BioCopy AG is a young biotech startup with headquarters in
Basel (Switzerland) and a research
facility in Emmendingen, Germany.
BioCopy's patented technology portfolio enables a unique label-free
measurement of molecular interactions, applied for diagnostics,
vaccines, lead and hit screening and was now expanded also to HLA
and TCR screening.
BioCopy's award winning team of more than 20 experts in the
field of biology, physics, engineering, microsystems technology and
economics is complemented by renowned board members. Especially
Rainer Boehm (ex-interim CEO and
Chief Commercial and Medical Affairs Officer Novartis Pharma), Prof. Dr. Alexander von Gabain
(co-founder of Intercell AG, now Valneva SE), and Pascal Brenneisen (ex-CEO Novartis Switzerland).
Contact International:
Manfred Claassens, Presse BioCopy;
+49 162 264 44 61; presse@biocopy.de
Contact Switzerland:
Barbara Ryter, Presse BioCopy; +41
43 501 33 06; presse@biocopy.ch
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SOURCE BioCopy