Developing innovative immunotherapies for infectious diseases and cancer
Abound Bio is a company whose mission is to generate novel antibody-based biological therapeutics to meet unmet medical needs in the fields of cancer and infectious disease. Abound Bio is led by world renowned experts in the therapeutic antibody, infectious disease, and cancer space with a significant track record of successful development of biotherapeutics, licensing, and partnerships.
Focusing on Difficult Therapeutic Targets
Current Challenges to Antibody Targeting:
One of the most common forms of biological therapeutic are monoclonal antibodies (mAbs). Antibodies are proteins produced by the immune system to neutralize and remove foreign substances through recognition of antigens; the antibody’s unique molecular target. Most therapeutic mAbs share similar composition with naturally occurring antibodies, however, full-size mAbs have limitations, primarily due to the antibody’s large size. The issue of size makes certain targets inaccessible and prevents efficient penetration into solid tumors or sites of uncontrolled infection and inflammation.
Abound Bio’s Unique Approach:
Our team has developed several very large (>1011 clones each), diverse human antibody libraries in standard Fab and scFv, and unique VH domain formats. We can rapidly (days to weeks) discover novel, high affinity, binders in multiple formats, engineer them if needed to improve their drugability (developability), and convert them for multiple uses including IgGs, multispecific, CARs, fusion proteins and antibody drug conjugates (ADCs).
We are willing to partner with other companies and academic institutions. Differentiators include:
Novel Antibody Libraries
- Abound Bio’s industry leading antibody libraries offer size and physical property advantages. Additionally, our ability to add new libraries increases binder diversity, coverage of potential antigens, screening capacity, and probability of identifying a lead therapeutic antibody candidate.
Antibody Engineering into Appropriate Therapeutic Format
- We incorporate diversified binder formats (Fab, scFv, VH) into the appropriate therapeutic platform (ADC, CAR, multispecific). Each indication and target may have different requirements; thus, the breadth of binder format provides a greater chance for success.
Unmatched Expertise
Abound Bio was founded by renowned experts with a track-record of success and vast depth of knowledge. Supported by a team of highly skilled scientists, Dr. John Mellors and Dr. Dimiter Dimitrov bring unique and complementary skillsets highly desired by the biopharmaceutical industry.
John Mellors, MD
President and Chief Executive Officer
Dr. Mellors is Chief of Infectious Diseases and Distinguished Professor at the University of Pittsburgh and UPMC. He has over 30 years of experience in laboratory science, clinical investigation and consultation for pharmaceutical development. He has more than 300 publications and multiple patents.
Dimiter Dimitrov, PhD, ScD
Executive Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer
Dr. Dimitrov is a world-leading antibody scientist and engineer recruited from the NIH with 30 years of experience. He has over 300 publications, 100 patents, and multiple discoveries leading to one antibody drug approval and the generation of several others in clinical development. Most notable are the antibody against Hendra and Nipah viruses, which is approved for clinical use on compassionate basis in Australia and the anti-CD22 antibody licensed by Juno and currently being developed as a CAR-T cell therapy for acute lymphoblastic leukemia and Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. This latter molecule has demonstrated clinical activity in patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia resistant to CD19 CAR-T cell therapy.
Latest News
New Publication 10/12/2020:
One small part of a human antibody has the potential to work as a drug for both prevention and therapy of COVID-19
Our company’s CSO, Dr. Dimitrov recently published an article on The Conversation, introducing ab8, a highly potent antibody fragment against COVID-19, to the general public. In this article, Dr. Dimitrov discussed the discovery of ab8, why it could be promising therapy against COVID-19 and how it can help us fight against this global pandemic.
“Ultimately I hope that this tiny ab8 antibody domain could be mass-produced and then injected into people to either prevent infection – by binding to a spike protein of an invading coronavirus before it infected a human cell – or to reduce the severity of COVID-19 once they were sick. ” – Dr. Dimitrov
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