NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – Oxford Genetics said today it has received $500,000 in funding from Innovate UK to support the development of its mammalian display antibody technology.
According to Oxford Genetics, its technology allows for candidate antibodies to be screened against human proteins in their naturally occurring state, as opposed to traditional methods that rely on yeast or animal expression systems.
The company said its mammalian display system could prove particularly useful in the development of antibody-based drugs, a process that, it noted, sees a "historically high attrition rate… when switching from conventional discovery methods to final evaluation in human cells."
The grant "demonstrates that Oxford Genetics is playing a key role in providing the next-generation antibody discovery services for our biopharmaceutical clients and this will open up a range of new collaborations with other industry partners," CEO Ryan Cawood said in a statement.
The award follows a previous £1.6 million ($2 million) grant Oxford Genetics received from Innovate UK in December 2016 to fund a collaboration with researchers at the University of Oxford to develop new computational and synthetic biology tools for mammalian bioproduction.