AdAlta Pty Ltd in partnership with The University of Melbourne, La Trobe University, Centre for Eye Research Australia and Monash University has been awarded a two year NHMRC Development Grant to examine the novel i-body for treatment in a number of eye diseases.
Retinal vascular diseases are leading causes of blindness in Australia and the Western world. Pathological growth of blood vessels and subsequent scarring and fibrosis are central features of wet AMD, proliferative diabetic retinopathy and also retinopathy of prematurity, major causes of vision loss.
This NHMRC Development project will generate data to demonstrate the advantages of the i-body for use in the treatment of these eye diseases.
The i-body is a novel next generation antibody – with extreme stability and an ability to access difficult drug targets such as GPCRs and ion channels previously inaccessible with conventional antibodies. It has the potential for shelf stable products and topical application due to its stability and AdAlta is undertaking manufacturing scale-up to take its lead i-body candidate into clinical trials for pulmonary fibrosis.
AdAlta’s CEO Sam Cobb said, “We are excited to be working with these Melbourne based groups who have significant expertise in ocular diseases, to further explore the anti-fibrotic effects of AdAlta’s lead candidate and the advantages of the i-body platform.”
“AdAlta is committed to drive innovation with the i-body platform and its lead anti-fibrotic candidate by collaborating with world class researchers. This non-dilutive funding supports this cutting edge science without compromising our main goal of advancing AdAlta’s lead for the treatment of pulmonary fibrosis.”
Lead investigator Professor Erica Fletcher from the University of Melbourne said “I am delighted to be working with AdAlta to develop these novel treatments for age related macular degeneration”.
About AdAlta
AdAlta Pty Ltd is an Australian based biotechnology company developing its lead fibrosis candidate with a next generation biological i-body platform.
The i-body is a novel human protein scaffold which combines the advantages of monoclonal antibodies (high target specificity and affinity) with advantages of small molecules including stability and ability to access difficult targets such as GPCRs and ion channels The i-bodies are extremely stable at high temperatures and low pH and can be manufactured in yeast or bacterial systems. In addition to the stability, the i-body has a long binding loop that human antibodies and other next generation antibodies do not have. The i-body with this long binding loop can target sites that traditionally antibodies cannot, such as clefts in cell surface receptors or the active sites of enzymes or targets such as GPCRs and ion channel targets. Further information can be found at www.adalta.com.au.