Morphosys announced that its AbD Serotec division has signed an agreement with the Moredun Research Institute and the University of Edinburgh's Roslin Institute to develop reagents for veterinary research.
The project is supported by a three-year Industrial Partnership Award from the UK's Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council that will provide the Moredun and Roslin institutes with close to £1 million ($1.58 million). Its primary focus is to develop species-specific protein reagents for studying immunity in ruminant farm animals.
"This project will allow us to enhance the current knowledge about how immune systems are activated and regulated in sheep and cattle," Gary Entrican, a researcher at the Moredun Research Institute, said in a statement. "This work will help identify the immunological correlates of protection to many different diseases of cattle and sheep, vital for the development of new vaccines."
AbD Serotec uses its HuCAL – or Human Combinatorial Antibody Library – platform to generate monoclonal antibodies for research and diagnostic applications. The platform consists of a collection of several billion distinct fully human antibodies that, according to the company's website, allows for the rapid selection of antibodies with high affinity and specificity.
Under the agreement, AbD Serotec has preferred access to commercialization rights for reagents developed through the collaboration.