Technology collaboration creates a faster rabbit.

Fusion Antibodies, UK-based contract research organization, and antibody discovery company MAB Discovery, recently announced a research and license agreement to leverage their respective antibody engineering expertise and technologies. According to the agreement, Fusion Antibodies will apply its proprietary CDRxTM Multiplex platform to humanize therapeutic antibodies selected and produced by MAB Discovery. MAB Discovery will provide high-quality humanized antibodies from its rabbit-based platform ready for further development with potential partners.

MAB Discovery CEO Dr. Stephan Fischer, said “The planned collaboration will enable us to provide our customers added value by offering high-quality humanized antibodies that are ready to be validated and brought into development.” Fischer said that by combining technologies their joint offering will reduce the time from target to clinical candidate.

Dr. Paul Kerr, Fusion Antibodies’ managing director explained “Through this collaboration we are able to create synergies and provide clients with perfect antibody candidates. They will get access to rapid discovery and development of new antibodies through MAB Discovery’s unique immunization and B cell cloning technology.” According to Kerr, MAB Discovery’s rabbit-based platform produces monoclonal antibodies with unprecedented epitope coverage and potency.

According to Fusion Antibodies, fully humanized monoclonal antibodies are an essential step in the progressive development of therapeutic drugs. In support, the company provides royalty-free antibody humanization of monoclonal antibodies using its next generation in silico technology which modernizes the traditional CDR grafting technique.

MAB Discovery’s proprietary technology employs the natural antibody maturation process following immunization. Rather than relying on conventional single hit optimization techniques of a few selected antibodies, the MAB Discovery approach creates a diverse collection of many hundreds of high affinity antibodies. The company uses state-of-the-art automation to select and clone B cells expressing matured antibodies deriving from the immunized animal’s entire repertoire to a given immunogen. According to MAB Discovery, their high throughput approach allows them to select antibodies for functionality at an earlier stage and not just by simple binding.