Alchemab Extends Partnership with Medicines Discovery Catapult
Boston, Massachusetts and Cambridge, UK March 7, 2022 – Alchemab Therapeutics – a biotechnology company focused on the discovery and development of naturally-occurring protective antibodies in neurodegeneration and oncology, has announced an extension of its collaboration with Medicines Discovery Catapult (MDC), a national facility enabling the UK’s community to accelerate innovative drug discovery.
The collaboration will functionally characterize antibodies from resilient patients with Alzheimer’s disease and frontotemporal dementia, previously discovered using Alchemab’s pioneering platform.
Under the agreement, Alchemab and MDC will evaluate antibodies using innovative technologies, including the use of high content imaging, high resolution microscopy, and spatial transcriptomics to assess endpoints using induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) derived neuronal and glial cells.
Alchemab and MDC initially entered a collaboration in March of 2021 to develop a novel antibody therapy for Huntington’s disease, exploring adaptive immunity and characterizing naturally-occurring protective antibodies in resilient patients.
“We are extremely pleased to extend our collaboration with Medicines Discovery Catapult,” said Dr. Douglas A. Treco, PhD, Chief Executive Officer of Alchemab Therapeutics. “With great progress in our Huntington’s disease program, we are positioned to advance potentially transformative therapies. Continuing our collaboration provides Alchemab with state of the art technologies to support the expansion of our neurodegenerative pipeline into patients with Alzheimer’s disease and frontotemporal dementia.”
Dr. Jane Osbourn, PhD, Co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Alchemab, commented: “Neurodegenerative conditions, especially Alzheimer’s disease, are impacting a larger patient population every year with behavioral, cognitive, and psychiatric disorders. Combining Alchemab’s pioneering platform with Medicines Discovery Catapult’s specialized neurodegeneration research capabilities will enable us to further understand the complex biology underpinning these devastating conditions and move closer to identifying novel drug targets and disease modifying therapies. We are delighted to continue the collaboration with Medicines Discovery Catapult and believe it will be integral in finding functional cures for these diseases.”
Dr. Martin Main, Head of Molecular Technologies at Medicines Discovery Catapult said: “The continuation of this collaboration will build upon our previous success applying the learnings from our Huntington’s disease focused project to a new disease area with significant unmet patient need. We look forward to expanding world-leading innovation in the neurodegenerative space to ultimately help improve the lives of patients living with frontotemporal dementia and Alzheimer’s Disease.”Participant samples used in the study have been collected by University College London (UCL) and the EPAD Consortium, the largest global Alzheimer’s disease repository, and curated at the EPAD BioResource at the University of Edinburgh
About Alchemab
Alchemab has developed a highly differentiated platform which enables the identification of novel drug targets and therapeutics by analysis of patient antibody repertoires. The platform uses well-defined patient samples, deep B cell sequencing, and computational analysis to identify convergent protective antibody responses among individuals that are susceptible but resilient to specific diseases.
Alchemab is building a broad pipeline of protective therapeutics for hard-to-treat diseases, with an initial focus on neurodegenerative conditions and oncology. The highly specialized patient samples that power Alchemab’s platform are made available through valued partnerships and collaborations with patient representative groups, biobanks, industry partners and academic institutions.
Contact
Jonathan Nugent
Stern Investor Relations
212-362-1200
jonathan.nugent@sternir.com