NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – Adaptive Biotechnologies today said that it has received a $2.53 million Phase II Small Business Innovation Research grant to support its adaptive immune system testing technology.
The Seattle-based firm said that it will use the funds, provided by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, to help commercialize a test that measures the ability of a cancer patient's adaptive immune system to fight infection after a cord blood transplant. Adaptive's test is based on its immunoSEQ next-generation sequencing platform.
Earlier this year, the firm presented data from a phase I study that showed a statistical correlation between low diversity of T cells and high likelihood of death from complications, including infection, during the first year after transplant.
The phase II study will be conducted prospectively over a three-year period on approximately 400 cord blood transplant recipients from five transplant centers in the US, said Adaptive. It will conduct the testing at its CLIA lab using the immunoSEQ platform and bioinformatics tools to calculate a precise measure of diversity for each patient at several time points after transplant.
"Identifying patients at risk for infection early after transplant is something that we strive to do in the clinic, but the current standard of using total T-cell counts seems to be suboptimal," Colleen Delany, cord blood transplant program director at The Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, said in a statement. "We are pleased to be leading this effort to identify a better way to measure immunity and ultimately increase overall survival for our transplant patients."
A couple of months ago, Adaptive disclosed in a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission that it had raised $5 million toward a targeted $20 million financing round. At the time, its CEO, Chad Robins, told GenomeWeb Daily News that proceeds from the financing would be used to further develop the firm's clonoSeq assay for measuring and monitoring minimal residual disease in blood-based cancers; expand the company's business around its immunoSeq assay; and to develop a new platform "for more rational drug design."