Under the terms of the agreement, each company will contribute their individual expertise in a highly collaborative manner to discover novel antibody therapeutics. Specifically, Schrödinger will use its proprietary physics-based computational platform to model functional antibody segments that bind to a particular GPCR receptor.
Twist Biopharma, a division of Twist Bioscience, will then use its silicon-based DNA synthesis platform to generate a large number of precisely defined antibody sequences that can then be taken into proof-of-concept and preclinical development. The companies will collaborate on any commercial opportunities generated by the work together.
“This collaboration brings together two very important areas of drug discovery technology,” said Robert Abel, Ph.D., Schrödinger’s Executive Vice President of Science. “Our physics-based platform enables detailed modeling of protein peptide interactions. Twist can then deploy its technology to incorporate such peptides into an antibody scaffold. Together, we believe we will be able to break new ground in antibody discovery and deliver next-generation therapeutics.”
“Through our internal efforts and key partnerships, we continue to expand our drug discovery capabilities,” commented Emily M. Leproust, Ph.D., CEO and co-founder of Twist Bioscience. “We started the company by offering our customers synthetic DNA in the form of genes and fragments, expanded our offering to take our synthetic DNA and elevate next-generation sequencing preparations, and now we are focused on leveraging our platform into antibody discovery. This partnership with Schrödinger builds on our strong foundation to further expand the benefit of our silicon-based DNA platform into therapeutics utilizing modeling.”
Source: Company Press Release