NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – ImaBiotech and iTeos Therapeutics today announced that they have received a two-year €800,000 grant ($867,544) from the Walloon Region of Belgium and Bpifrance to fund research characterizing the microenvironment of tumor tissues.
Belgian therapeutics firm iTeos will contribute immune-oncology animal models and tissue libraries for metabolite profiling using ImaBiotech's Multimaging combined mass spectrometry imaging and immunohistology technology.
All rights to therapeutic applications of the research will go to iTeos while ImaBiotech will receive the rights to all diagnostic applications, the firms said.
"Mass Spectrometry Imaging is a powerful tool in the preclinical imaging landscape for biomarker identification and localization. The ability to work with iTeos to direct and interpret the [mass spectrometry imaging] results for a major therapeutic application like immune-oncology is a unique opportunity," ImaBiotech CEO and CSO Jonathan Stauber said in a statement.
French imaging technology firm ImaBiotech also has operations in Cambridge, Mass. Gosselies, Belgium-based iTeos Therapeutics is a spinout from a partnership between Ludwig Cancer Research and the Université Catholique de Louvain.