Prolias Acquires Technology From UMBI

Prolias has acquired technology from the University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute (UMBI). The new technology is expected to extend Prolias’ discovery platform, FioNA, by providing a platform for the creation of fully human, recombinant antibodies from diverse, endogenous antibody sources.

The newly acquired technology, developed by George Lewis and colleagues at UMBI, provides Prolias with the means to generate fully human antibodies from naive B cells in-vitro. Advantages of the in-vitro system are that it generates fully human antibodies without direct immunisation of any patient or human individual, and antibodies can be created from readily accessible tissues such as human peripheral blood.

Jonathan Gottlieb, director of technology transfer and commercialisation at UMBI, said: “In the realm of antibody therapeutics, fully human antibodies are the preferable modality. This novel approach offers an alternative to phage libraries.”

Joe Hernandez, chairman of Prolias, said: “This acquisition gives Prolias access to a method of developing full human antibodies to the novel targets we have discovered via our existing FioNA technology. This provides us with the ability to discover new targets and develop antibodies to those targets in a seamless manner.”