Tonix Pharmaceuticals has expanded its research partnership with Columbia University in the US for the development of tailored Covid-19 vaccines and treatments with precision medicine.
The move follows the company’s research collaboration and option agreement with Columbia University in July last year.
The expanded partnership will focus on investigating the immune responses to Covid-19 in healthy people who have recovered from the disease or were asymptomatic.
It will also evaluate the in vitro T cell and antibody responses to the virus that causes Covid-19.
The research collaboration aims to fill critical gaps in understanding the detailed immune responses to Covid-19 and provide precise treatments by customising vaccines and therapies to suitable people.
Tonix Pharmaceuticals president and CEO Seth Lederman said: “Based on the progress and results of the initial phase of these projects, we are excited to expand our research collaboration with Columbia University on these precision medicine technologies and also to potentially develop new monoclonal antibody therapeutics.”
The scientists are evaluating T cell and antibody responses in several ways that include at the cellular level by inducing T cells in vitro with CoV-2 antigens and by making fully human monoclonal antibodies against SARS-CoV-2.
Tonix stated that this research can potentially enable the isolation, characterisation and cloning of therapeutically relevant fully human neutralising monoclonal antibodies to the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
The researchers are also producing DNA aptamer-based anti-idiotypes to specific monoclonal antibodies identified.
These aptamers could detect biomarkers for protective CoV-2 immunity and speed up the design of precision medicine-driven vaccines for Covid-19.
Seth Lederman added: “Data from this collaboration may provide a roadmap and tools to potentially guide the selection of appropriate individuals for Covid-19 vaccine trials and to help determine which vaccine is appropriate for each individual based on the condition of their immune system or other physiological features.”