Jan 15 2014
Fabrus, Inc., a San Diego based antibody discovery company, announced today that it has obtained worldwide exclusive rights to Chimerasome™ nanocage technology originally developed by Chimeros, Inc.
The foundation of Chimerasome technology is a single protein that can be manipulated to form a spherical protein shell, which can encapsulate drugs and be coupled to antibodies externally, allowing very specific cellular targeting of the drug payload.
Miguel de los Rios, PhD, Fabrus' Vice President of R&D and the inventor of the Chimerasome and founder of Chimeros, Inc., commented "Chimerasome technology can allow the delivery of thousands of active drug molecules per antibody to a target, compared to perhaps a half a dozen molecules using traditional antibody drug conjugate or ADC technology. In addition, we can adjust the protein building blocks to allow the opening of the nanocage based on environmental cues. This can allow even more precise drug delivery than traditional ADC technologies."
"The Chimerasome technology will allow us to create unique drug particles by combining antibodies developed on the Fabrus platform with the Chimerasome nanocage," stated Vaughn Smider, MD, PhD, founder of Fabrus. "The technology could enable us to deliver massive payloads of either small molecule drugs or unique biologics like siRNA to very targeted locations in the body, broadening the therapeutic utility of our antibodies."
Fabrus is the first company to bring the speed and flexibility of small molecule screening to the field of fully human antibody therapeutics, while being unencumbered by existing antibody engineering intellectual property. The novel discovery format is analogous to a combinatorial chemistry library and enables direct cell based screening, opening novel targets to antibody therapeutics like G-protein coupled receptors or ion channels. Fabrus investors include OPKO Health and Pfizer, Inc. For more information go to www.fabrus.net.
Source: http://www.fabrus.net