Charles River and Distributed Bio Partner on Integrated Antibody Platform

Charles River Laboratories International announced on Oct. 25, 2018 that it has entered into an exclusive partnership with Distributed Bio, a company specializing in computational design and optimization of antibody discovery platforms, that grants Charles River access to Distributed Bio’s antibody libraries and integrated antibody optimization technologies.

Distributed Bio’s libraries are computationally optimized for sequence diversity and engineering fitness through the analysis of thousands of human antibody repertoires and all known monoclonal therapeutics in clinical trials. The companies expect to create an end-to-end platform for therapeutic antibody discovery and development with the combination of Distributed Bio’s antibody libraries and Charles River’s drug development services.

Distributed Bio’s computational immunoengineering platform provides libraries that can generate more than 5000 unique hits against each antigen tested. The platform improves the chance of successful hit finding, reduces optimization requirements, and expedites the discovery process to as little as three to four months, according to the company. The company’s computational immunology experience also enables optimization of existing antibodies generated through more traditional platforms, such as hybridoma or traditional phage display.

“Distributed Bio’s technology, coupled with Charles River’s deep scientific strength in drug discovery and early-stage development, ensures that our portfolio is truly next generation. This combination provides our clients with Distributed Bio’s ability to discover new antibodies, then proceed seamlessly from hit to clinical candidate faster than before,” said Birgit Girshick, corporate executive vice president of Discovery and Safety Assessment at Charles River, in a company press release.

“Leveraging our revolutionary antibody discovery and engineering platforms and Charles River’s downstream capabilities will deliver a comprehensive research experience from idea to clinic. We are about to release the third generation of our discovery platform and sought a partner that had both the scale to match our growth and the agility to realize the value of our antibody platforms as fast as possible,” added Jake Glanville, PhD, founding partner and chief science officer at Distributed Bio, in the press release.

Source: Charles River Laboratories International