ImaginAb, a University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) spin-out, has signed a technology licensing agreement with the regents of UCLA relating to immune cell-targeting agents for imaging with Positron Emission Tomography (PET).
The agreement gives ImaginAb exclusive access to imaging agents that target specific markers of murine T-cells. This will enable a better understanding of response to immunotherapeutic drugs in pre-clinical models. The imaging agents complement the company’s current clinical development programs, particularly in regards to cancer immunotherapy.
The biotech’s technology engineers antibodies into smaller protein fragments that seek out their targets and light up on PET scans. PET scans are 3D images of functional processes in the body, and combined with ImaginAb’s technology they are helping physicians visualise disease on a molecular level. The company expects that this combination of technologies can be used to better understand the immune system and the body’s response to diseases.
ImaginAb closed a $12.5m series A in 2012 and a $21m series B in June 2014.
Anna Wu, co-founder of ImaginAb and professor in the department of molecular and medical pharmacology, said: “Existing research tools for the evaluation of response to immunotherapies in preclinical models systems are extremely limited. There are, however, a growing number of promising treatment strategies – including combination therapies – for cancer and autoimmune disease. We believe that these agents will improve our understanding of immunotherapies in the research setting in order to develop more effective clinical solutions.”
