Jun 3, 2020   SOURCE: BusinessWire

Distributed Bio Partners With Mediar Therapeutics, Inc.

Distributed Bio, a global leader in computational optimization of fully human monoclonal antibody libraries, is pleased to announce a comprehensive research partnership with Mediar Therapeutics, a preclinical stage biotechnology company developing therapeutics to halt, or even reverse, fibrosis based in Cambridge, MA. Distributed Bio will use its SuperHuman2.0 Antibody Discovery platform to identify lead antibodies for Mediar programs.

“Mediar selected Distributed Bio based on their industry-leading scientific technology and expertise in antibody discovery,” says Dr Paul Yaworsky, CSO of Mediar. “The platform is engineered to yield a truly diverse panel of fully human high affinity antibodies which enhance our ability to generate therapeutic candidates that match our selectivity, cross reactivity and developability requirements. Drug development is inherently a high-risk process. At Mediar we strive to take every measure to mitigate those risks. Partnering with Distributed Bio is one of those measures, and ultimately leads us to delivering lifesaving therapeutics faster and more efficiently.”

“We are delighted that Mediar selected Distributed Bio as a preferred partner for antibody discovery,” says Dr Jacob Glanville, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Distributed Bio. “The SuperHuman Platform represents the culmination of a decade of our research in computational library design. We’ve recently demonstrated how effective and fast it is by generating a large panel of neutralizing antibodies against Covid-19 in a matter of weeks. The ultimate goal of everyone in the biotechnology industry is to improve patients’ lives as fast as possible. Our technologies represent an essential tool in that fight.”

The SuperHuman2.0 antibody library of 76 billion sequence-unique antibodies offers a new paradigm in antibody discovery: hits to any target, with species cross-reactivity and selectivity that are crucial for success. The hits are H3-diverse, thermostabilized >70ºC, non-immunogenic, fully human, pre-screened by human blood and exist on 100% germline frameworks with robust therapeutic pedigrees to enhance developability, CMC, and human safety profiles. SuperHuman2.0 delivers an order of magnitude more molecules than can be generated by other technologies, and enables partners to search for ultra-specific, species-cross reactive therapeutic antibodies at unprecedented speeds. The library overcomes many of the limitations of other monoclonal generation technologies that has resulted in a unique engineering opportunity: a library that can generate diverse and developable hits against every antigen tested, enabling routine success against historically impossible or challenging antibody targets – Covid-19, GPCRs agonists and antagonists, Ion Channels, pMHC complexes, broadly-neutralizing antibodies against HIV, therapeutic anti-idiotypic antibodies, bi-epitopic antibodies, ultra-selective antibodies that avoid related proteins, and mouse/NHP/human cross-reactive antibodies with low species homology.

About Distributed Bio

Distributed Bio is a computational immunoengineering biotechnology group, self-funded by the success of the stack of antibody discovery, optimization and analysis technologies to partners across the pharmaceutical industry. Our mission is to disrupt biologic engineering with big data, machine learning, and computational immunology-driven design.

From a team that includes inventors of antibody repertoire sequencing technologies, their AbGenesis antibody and TCR repertoire analysis and engineering platform enables partners to analyze antibody repertoires by high-throughput sequence, Sanger sequence, and functional assay without requiring large data center investments or local bioinformatics specialists. By using AbGenesis to analyze thousands of antibody repertoires and antibody libraries, they developed the computationally optimized SuperHuman2.0 antibody library, the SLiC single light chain library, the Tungsten humanized VHH library, CAR-T discovery library, and the Cosmic antibody library.

About Mediar Therapeutics

Mediar Therapeutics is a preclinical stage biotechnology company developing therapeutics to halt, or even reverse, fibrosis and restore long-term organ function. The platform and pipeline are based on an emerging class of novel targets – fibrotic mediators – that play key roles in modulating myofibroblast biology and the development of fibrosis in chronically damaged organs. Mediar was founded by Partners Innovation Fund, Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham & Women’s Hospital.