Abstract
With $8 million in new financing, Ser-Immune plans to expand its immune–mapping technology platform and antibody repertoire database, as well as expand its staff and build strategic partnerships.
SerImmune’s Immune Information Technology (ImmuneIT) platform is designed to reveal the antigens that determine functional immune repertoires. It does this by mapping circulating antibodies to their diverse antigens using molecular libraries composed of billions of antigen decoys and applying big data informatics tools. Antibodies within a repertoire can be mapped to antigens from infections, allergens, microbiome organisms, autoimmune diseases, and cancers.
The platform presents new opportunities for therapeutic as well as diagnostics development, SerImmune CEO Patrick Daugherty, Ph.D., said.
“Prior immune repertoire focused companies have focused almost exclusively on sequencing the genes that encode B- and T-cell receptors. While this information is clearly useful, it doesn’t tell us which antigens these receptors bind. Another problem is that receptors can exhibit widely varying sequences, yet very similar antigen specificity,” Dr. Daugherty said. “SerImmune is constructing the map to identify which of the many diverse antigens are targeted by the humoral immune response.”
SerImmune’s platform can analyze for an effectively unlimited number of antibody species, in parallel, to provide a detailed picture of immune responses at the epitope level. It employs a diverse peptide library capable of representing many antigens to probe the repertoire within a specimen.
Dr. Daugherty said SerImmune plans to grow its staff to between 16 and 20 people over the next year using proceeds from the financing. Investors included Illumina Ventures, a venture firm funded mostly by Illumina, and Merck & Co., with which SerImmune has launched an R&D collaboration.
The company will apply its immune repertoire characterization platform to clinical and preclinical specimens provided by Merck, which will lead preclinical and clinical development and commercialize candidates identified from the collaboration. SerImmune is eligible for payments from Merck tied to achieving development and regulatory milestones, plus tiered royalties on sales of any products resulting from the collaboration.
Dr. Daugherty said future SerImmune alliances will focus on therapeutic areas where partners have “a clear and compelling need,” adding: “Longer term, we may pursue wholly owned therapeutic programs.”
“We will partner to discover disease-associated antigens for therapeutic antibody development, vaccines, early disease detection, and to develop companion diagnostics in areas where defining the immune repertoire can identify patients likely to respond,” Dr. Daugherty said. “SerImmune is also partnering with organizations that have a need to identify environmental factors associated with disease for global health and epidemiology.”