Abcam and BrickBio Announce a Partnership to Incorporate Conjugation-Ready Sites into Recombinant Antibodies Across Abcam’s Portfolio

• BrickBio’s technology enables efficient placement of unnatural amino acids into recombinant antibodies at specific sites
• Together, the organizations will industrialize the technology to serve both the research and diagnostic markets

CAMBRIDGE, UK and BOSTON, MA, USA, November 08, 2019 / B3C newswire / -- Abcam plc, a global innovator in life science reagents and tools, is today pleased to announce a strategic partnership with BrickBio, experts in site-specific protein modification and a Tiger Gene portfolio company, covering the use of BrickBio’s proprietary platform for introducing conjugation-ready sites into antibodies and other proteins in both mammalian and bacterial expression systems.

Under the partnership, Abcam will have exclusive rights to the platform for the creation of novel conjugation-ready recombinant products for the research tools market, as well as rights to commercialize the platform across its recombinant antibody and protein portfolio for diagnostic use. In addition, Abcam will make a financial investment in BrickBio and work together with the BrickBio team to further industrialize the platform. 

BrickBio’s platform provides an unparalleled ability to site-selectively modify proteins in a broad range of eukaryotic and bacterial cell lines. Using a proprietary engineered tRNA synthetase/tRNA pair, the platform can readily incorporate unnatural amino acids that can then be coupled to a second molecule for labeling or other research applications, or to create protein-conjugate therapeutics including Antibody-Drug-Conjugates (ADCs).   

Commenting on the partnership and investment, Cheri Walker, SVP of Corporate Development at Abcam, said: “We are excited about the opportunity to partner with BrickBio, an innovative team that has developed one of the most exciting technologies that we have seen in the recombinant antibody space. The market needs easy and reliable conjugation-ready solutions, and together, Abcam and BrickBio plan to deliver these solutions to the market.  We are committed to incorporate this technology across our in-house recombinant antibody and protein portfolios.”

John Boyce, CEO of BrickBio and Co-Founder of Tiger Gene, commented: “With one of the largest and highest quality recombinant antibody portfolios in the market, Abcam was a natural fit to be our exclusive partner to take our technology to scientific researchers. We are excited to work together to further industrialize the platform and see it widely introduced into the research segment of the market.  At the same time, BrickBio will focus on becoming a critical platform for therapeutic partners, enabling biopharma clients to solve difficult protein-based drug development needs, helping to build high performing protein therapeutics, such as ADCs, for controlled labeling and manufacturing.”  

About Abcam plc
As a global life sciences company, Abcam identifies, develops, and distributes high-quality biological reagents and tools that are crucial to research, drug discovery and diagnostics. Working across the industry, the Company supports life scientists to achieve their mission, faster. Abcam partners with life science organizations to co-create novel binders for use in drug discovery, in vitro diagnostics and therapeutics, driven by the Company's proprietary discovery platforms and world-leading, antibody expertise. By constantly innovating its binders and assays, Abcam is helping advance the global understanding of biology and causes of disease, which enables new treatments and improved health. The Company's pioneering data-sharing approach gives scientists increased confidence in their results by providing validation, user comments and peer-reviewed citations for its 110,000 products. With eleven sites globally, many of Abcam's 1,100 strong team are located in the world's leading life science research hubs, complementing a global network of services and support.
To find out more, please visit www.abcam.com and  www.abcamplc.com.

About BrickBio Inc
BrickBio, a Boston-based biotechnology company, empowers next-generation unnatural amino acid coupled protein conjugation with its site-specific and site-selective platform. The platform technology spans prokaryotic and eukaryotic expression systems, enabling the development of unique biologics and protein therapeutics with enhanced characteristics, including improvements to half-life, dosage and efficacy. With the broadest toolkit of bioconjugation handles, BrickBio can optimize any conjugate and is uniquely situated to push the frontier of biologics with the selective modification of multiple distinct sites on a single protein. BrickBio is working with partners to develop best-in-class therapeutics and RUO kits with its proprietary bioconjugation strategies.
To find out more, please visit www.brickbio.com

Contacts

Abcam
Dr Lynne Trowbridge
Vice President, External Communications
+44 7815 167026
Lynne.Trowbridge@abcam.com

BrickBio
Audrey Warner
Business Development Manager
+1 (646) 951-4797
audrey.warner@brickbio.com

Keywords: Antibodies; Immunoconjugates; Protein Processing, Post-Translational; Industrial Development; Modification;

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