Invention Summary:
Immunotherapies are proving to be one of the most effective treatments in oncology, but finding targetable tumor-associated antigens (TAA) or neoantigens remains a major impediment to develop first-in-class pharmaceuticals. Rutgers scientists developed a proteomics-based neoantigen discovery pipeline that simultaneously yields tumor-specific target antigen(s) and biologic leads.
The system is a proprietary multi-dimensional high-throughput process capable of finding novel biomarkers while providing corresponding biologic lead(s), giving it a competitive advantage on two fronts, target identification, and lead development. The process can be applied to a spectrum of diseases but is uniquely positioned to find cancer neoantigens for therapeutic development, both intracellular and extracellular targets. Therapeutic leads are generated during extracellular target identification, and these can be used for immunotherapy or cancer vaccine development, while small molecule screening can be used for the intracellular targets.
The technology is a super-charged version of classical antibody phage display but goes further than mere antibody discovery and, instead, is modified for target identification. This feature cannot be accomplished with standard antibody phage display techniques. Further, one can rapidly generate large bacterial-expressed recombinant antibody (rAb) libraries that are resistant to mutagenesis, improving the likelihood of finding targets and useful biologics due to unique design elements in our system. Of note, the solution is uniquely positioned to find broadly expressed neoantigens present in large patient populations.
Advantages:
- Antibody phage display technique modified for target identification
- Allows to generate large recombinant antibody (rAb) libraries resistant to mutagenesis
Market Applications:
- Finding novel biomarkers for the development of cancer vaccines and immunotherapies
- Finding expressed neoantigens in large patient populations
Intellectual Property & Development Status: Patent pending. Available for research collaboration.
