AnaptysBio awarded DARPA contract extension for additional high affinity thermally stable antibodies

AnaptysBio, Inc., a privately-held therapeutic antibody company, today announced that the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has extended its contract with AnaptysBio to generate additional high affinity thermally stable antibodies for biodefense applications. This extension was awarded based upon the successful completion by AnaptysBio of milestones during the first year of the contract.

“The milestones achieved under this project demonstrate our ability to simultaneously optimize Abs for affinity and thermal stability.”

Originally signed in 2010, AnaptysBio's contract with DARPA, a U.S. Department of Defense agency, is focused upon generating antibodies that could be used in antibody-based biosensors to detect bioterror threats.

AnaptysBio's proprietary SHM-XEL platform uniquely permits optimization of multiple properties, including thermal stability, expression, cross-reactivity and functional activity, in parallel with affinity improvement using the natural process of somatic hypermutation (SHM). Aside from biodefense applications, SHM-XEL is useful in improving the convenience and shelf-life of therapeutic antibodies through increased thermal stability.

"We are pleased to extend our contractual relationship with DARPA," said James Topper, executive chairman of AnaptysBio. "The milestones achieved under this project demonstrate our ability to simultaneously optimize Abs for affinity and thermal stability."