AbCellera (Nasdaq: ABCL), a technology company focused on
next-generation antibody discovery, today announced the release of
data on its new T cell engager platform at the American Association
for Cancer Research (AACR) 2022 Annual Meeting. AbCellera’s poster
presentation describes the discovery, characterization, and
validation of a diverse panel of CD3-binding antibodies that can be
used to develop bispecific CD3 T cell engagers for new cancer
treatments.
“T cell engagers are widely recognized for their tremendous
potential as precision oncology therapeutics. However, a limited
pool of available CD3-binding antibodies and technological
challenges in engineering bispecifics have hindered development,
leading to many first-generation molecules with poor efficacy or
safety,” said Bo Barnhart, Ph.D., VP, Translational Research at
AbCellera. “Our discovery engine has allowed us to build a panel of
hundreds of diverse and fully human CD3-binding antibodies.
Combined with our OrthoMabTM bispecific platform, this enables
rapid screening of many combinations of CD3- and tumor
antigen-binding antibodies to find pairs with optimal biological
function and good developability.”
CD3 T cell engagers, which bind to T cells and cancer cells
simultaneously, are able to redirect T cells to tumor cells,
regardless of T cell specificity. Two different parental
antibodies, a CD3-targeting antibody that fine-tunes T cell
activation and a tumor-targeting antibody with high specificity for
cancer cells, are needed to create an optimal bispecific T cell
engager. Highly diverse panels of developable and functionally
validated parental antibodies increase the probability of finding
effective and manufacturable CD3 T cell engagers and reduce the
need for downstream engineering to eliminate liabilities.
AbCellera used its technology stack to discover a panel of
CD3-binding antibodies from humanized mice. Bioinformatic analysis
revealed high sequence diversity, including somatic hypermutation,
a range of CDR3 lengths, and diverse V gene usage. The panel was
also found to be functionally diverse, including a broad range of
CD3 affinities and T cell activation potencies. Biophysical
characterization demonstrated that AbCellera’s CD3-binding
antibodies have favorable developability properties, which may
reduce the time and technical risks of downstream protein
engineering, including low mean hydrophobicity, self-association,
and polyspecificity.
AbCellera used its clinically validated bispecifics platform,
OrthoMabTM, to pair the CD3-binding antibodies with a single
EGFR-binding arm to validate the panel in bispecific formats. The
resulting bispecific antibodies activated T cells with a range of
potencies and led to T cell-mediated tumor cell killing of
EGFR-expressing cell lines.
“The data from our T cell engager program, which we initiated in
late 2021, show the power and speed of AbCellera’s robust
platform,” said Neil Berkley, AbCellera’s Chief Business Officer.
“Our panel of CD3-binding antibodies offers partners the ability to
unlock this promising modality and accelerate their oncology
programs by streamlining the development of new cancer
treatments.”
Details on AbCellera’s presentation at AACR are as
follows:
Title: Redirecting T cells to tumor targets with
functionally diverse CD3-binding antibodies Presenter: Bryan
(Bo) C. Barnhart, Ph.D., VP Translational Research, AbCellera
Session: Antibodies and Immune Therapies — Abstract #312
Date and time: Sunday, April 10 at 1:30-5:00 PM CDT
The poster is available for viewing here.
About AbCellera Biologics Inc.
AbCellera is a technology company that searches, decodes, and
analyzes natural immune systems to find antibodies that its
partners can develop into drugs to prevent and treat disease.
AbCellera partners with drug developers of all sizes, from large
pharmaceutical to small biotechnology companies, empowering them to
move quickly, reduce cost, and tackle the toughest problems in drug
development. For more information, please visit
www.abcellera.com.
AbCellera Forward-looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements,
including statements made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of
the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The
forward-looking statements are based on management’s current
beliefs and assumptions and on information currently available to
management. All statements contained in this release other than
statements of historical fact are forward-looking statements,
including statements regarding our ability to develop,
commercialize and achieve market acceptance of our current and
planned products and services, our research and development
efforts, and other matters regarding our business strategies, use
of capital, results of operations and financial position, and plans
and objectives for future operations.
In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by
the words “may,” “will,” “could,” “would,” “should,” “expect,”
“intend,” “plan,” “anticipate,” “believe,” “estimate,” “predict,”
“project,” “potential,” “continue,” “ongoing” or the negative of
these terms or other comparable terminology, although not all
forward-looking statements contain these words. These statements
involve risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause
actual results, levels of activity, performance, or achievements to
be materially different from the information expressed or implied
by these forward-looking statements. These risks, uncertainties and
other factors are described under "Risk Factors," "Management's
Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of
Operations" and elsewhere in the documents we file with the
Securities and Exchange Commission from time to time. We caution
you that forward-looking statements are based on a combination of
facts and factors currently known by us and our projections of the
future, about which we cannot be certain. As a result, the
forward-looking statements may not prove to be accurate. The
forward-looking statements in this press release represent our
views as of the date hereof. We undertake no obligation to update
any forward-looking statements for any reason, except as required
by law.
Source: AbCellera Biologics Inc.
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version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220408005017/en/
Media: Jessica Yingling, Ph.D.; media@abcellera.com,
+1(236)521-6774 Business Development: Neil Berkley;
bd@abcellera.com, +1(604)559-9005 Investor Relations: Melanie
Solomon; ir@abcellera.com, +1(778)729-9116
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