Twist Bioscience Corporation (NASDAQ: TWST), a company enabling customers to succeed through its offering of high-quality synthetic DNA using its silicon platform, today announced a partnership with Pure Biologics to accelerate the discovery of immuno-oncology antibody-based drugs.
“Twist’s unique technological approaches and abilities allow for the rapid generation of diverse synthetic libraries with novel and recent data-based randomization schemes. Combined with our immuno-oncology pipeline and scientific background in the field of therapeutic bispecific antibodies and antibodies bearing protein fusions, we expect this partnership to accelerate our discovery pipeline and build a base for research expansion in the future,” said Filip Jelen, Ph.D., CEO of Pure Biologics SA.
Under the terms of the agreement, Twist Biopharma, a division of Twist Bioscience, will grant Pure Biologics’ access to select synthetic antibody phage display libraries derived only from sequences that exist in the human body and further optimized by leveraging state-of-the-art approaches, including artificial intelligence and big data analytics. Certain libraries among the portfolio are deliberately tailored to match chosen classes of biological targets as well as to enhance bispecific antibody forming capabilities. Together, the companies will work to discover, validate and optimize new antibody candidates against targets useful for immuno-oncology applications. Pure Biologics will pay Twist annual technology access fees in addition to future payments for preclinical, clinical and commercial achievement for any antibodies resulting from the collaboration.
“We look forward to augmenting Pure Biologics’ immuno-oncology pipeline with first-in-class bispecific antibodies identified and designed using our robust discovery and optimization engine,” commented Emily M. Leproust, Ph.D., CEO and co-founder of Twist Bioscience. “Highly selective, potent bispecific antibodies that bind to multiple targets have the potential to change the way cancer is treated in the future.”