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news.San Diego genomics firm Diversa Corporation has signed a therapeutic antibodies development agreement with Merck & Co, under which it will receive an upfront payment and research funding.
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“Through this collaboration, we intend to leverage the skills and strengths of both companies to develop novel antibodies for an important clinical indication where there is significant unmet medical need,” said Gary Noon, Diversa’s senior vice president of pharmaceuticals.
The collaboration will focus on developing novel therapeutic antibodies against a key target by applying Diversa’s proprietary MedEv platform. Two protein engineering technology platforms patented by Diversa comprise the MedEv antibody optimization platform: gene site saturation mutagenesis (GSSM) and gene reassembly technologies.
Combined with high-throughput screening, these patented techniques yield a complete picture of the detailed functional behavior of every variant derived from a candidate antibody.