AbCellera Announces the Issuance of Foundational Patent Claims Around Microfluidic Screening Assays for Antibody Discovery

November 07, 2019

AbCellera Biologics Inc., a global leader in therapeutic antibody discovery from natural immune systems, today announced that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has granted patent no. 10,466,241 titled “Methods for Assaying Cellular Binding Interactions.” The patent, exclusively licensed to AbCellera, originated from Carl Hansen’s former laboratory at the University of British Columbia and lists Carl Hansen, Anupam Singhal, John Schrader, Charles Haynes, and Daniel Da Costa as co-inventors. This issuance follows a series of recently granted U.S. patents including 10,421,936 “System and Method for Microfluidic Cell Culture” and 10,274,494 “Methods for Assaying Cellular Binding Interactions” that extend protection of AbCellera’s market-leading technology and adds to its expanding global intellectual property portfolio.

“The issuance of this patent further solidifies AbCellera’s position as the innovation leader in next-generation antibody discovery. Our patent portfolio includes broad and foundational claims on the use of microfluidics for high-throughput single-cell secretion assays, with application to antibody discovery and clone selection. We continue to invest heavily in innovation that expands and complements our capabilities, opening up new target classes for biologics and accelerating the development of therapies for patients,” said Carl Hansen, AbCellera’s CEO.

AbCellera brings the expertise of its team and the most advanced scientific tools to enable the discovery of better antibody therapies for its partners. At the core of AbCellera’s platform is a screening technology that allows analysis of millions of single B cells per campaign to identify antibodies with rare therapeutic properties. AbCellera’s patent portfolio covers, among other things, assay miniaturization in nanoliter-volume chambers to assess antibodies from single cells in a matter of hours. These include assays such as live-cell binding, specificity, cross-reactivity, affinity, receptor blocking and function, with applications in antibody discovery, antibody engineering, and cell line selection.

Examples of AbCellera's proprietary single-cell assays.

Over the past three years, AbCellera has successfully completed more than 40 antibody discovery programs, including partnerships with top-tier global pharmaceutical companies and venture-backed biotech companies. Applying best-in-class technology and custom innovation to each project, AbCellera has enabled programs for various target classes, including difficult multi-pass membrane proteins, and provided its partners with a competitive advantage through superior diversity, throughput, and quality.

 

About AbCellera Biologics Inc.

AbCellera is a privately held company that engages in partnerships to discover and develop next-generation therapeutic antibodies. AbCellera’s single-cell platform integrates end-to-end capabilities for therapeutic antibody discovery through a unique combination of technologies including proprietary immunizations, microfluidics, high-throughput imaging, genomics, deep computation, artificial intelligence, and laboratory automation. Ultra-deep screening of single B cells allows unprecedented access to natural immune responses, enabling rapid isolation of large and diverse panels of high-quality lead antibodies from any species, including humans. For more information, visit www.abcellera.com.

AbCellera Contact:

Kevin Heyries, PhD, Head of Business Development

1.604.559.9005

bd@abcellera.com