Antiverse, Cystic Fibrosis Foundation team to develop new antibodies
They will be designed to bind to hard-to-reach region of CFTR protein
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Antiverse has entered into a research collaboration with the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation to develop novel antibodies targeting CFTR, the protein whose dysfunction causes cystic fibrosis (CF).
The collaboration will specifically focus on designing antibodies that bind to the extracellular region of CFTR, the portion of the protein that’s outside the cell and a target that has historically been difficult to reach with conventional drug discovery approaches.
Antiverse will use its artificial intelligence (AI)-driven antibody design platform to generate and test antibodies predicted to bind to this region of CFTR with high specificity. The goal is to identify candidates that could serve as the basis for new therapies for people with CF.
The collaboration comes on the heels of a Series A financing round in which Antiverse raised $9.3 million to expand its AI platform, advance its pipeline of therapeutic antibodies, and strengthen strategic collaborations.
Series A is an early funding round that typically occurs after a company has reached key development milestones and moved beyond the initial startup stage. The round was led by Soulmates Ventures, with participation from Innovation Investment Capital, Domino Ventures, and existing investors DBW, Kadmos Capital, and the i&i Biotech Fund.
“Many biologically important targets have remained difficult to drug using conventional antibody discovery methods,” Murat Tunaboylu, co-founder and CEO of Antiverse, said in a company press release. “This Series A financing enables us to scale our generative antibody design platform, accelerate our internal pipeline, and expand strategic collaborations such as our work with the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, where our technology is applied to explore challenging targets like extracellular CFTR.”
Researchers exploring additional strategies to target CFTR
CF is caused by mutations in the CFTR gene, which provides instructions for making a protein of the same name. The CFTR protein sits on the cell membrane, where it acts like a gate, helping to regulate the flow of chloride ions in and out of cells. When CFTR is missing or defective, thick, sticky mucus can build up in the lungs and other organs, leading to most disease symptoms.
Current CF treatments often rely on CFTR modulators. These therapies bind to specific faulty versions of the CFTR protein within cells to increase the protein’s functionality. However, not all patients are eligible to receive, or respond to, currently available modulators, leaving some people without targeted treatment options.
Researchers are therefore exploring additional strategies to target CFTR. One approach involves developing antibodies that bind to the extracellular region of the protein. Targeting this region, however, remains a significant challenge because only a small fraction of CFTR sits outside the cell, and many of those parts are masked by sugar molecules.
Antiverse’s technology is designed to help address this challenge. Using its AI-driven antibody design platform, which was developed over several years of training on difficult protein targets, Antiverse will first create a library of antibodies predicted to bind to the extracellular region of CFTR.
Antiverse is tackling one of the most technically demanding problems in drug discovery.
Candidate antibodies will then be screened using the company’s proprietary “lab-in-the-loop” workflow, in which antibodies are tested in engineered cell lines that produce large amounts of the target protein, increasing the likelihood of identifying strong binders.
Promising antibody candidates will then be transferred to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation’s dedicated lab for further testing in cell models that naturally express CFTR. The collaboration aims to support the rapid evaluation of emerging therapeutic approaches for CF and help accelerate progression from early discovery to patients.
According to the company, its AI-supported platform can design therapeutic antibody candidates in less than four months.
“Antiverse is tackling one of the most technically demanding problems in drug discovery,” said Michal Sikyta, managing partner at Soulmates Ventures. “The team’s ability to reduce the development time for de novo therapeutic-grade antibodies in a defined domain to under four months is a significant scientific and operational achievement.”
