© 2007
Freund/OncoLab
The company
Affitech AS (http://www.affitech.com) is a human antibody therapeutics company based in Oslo, Norway, with a US subsidiary in the San Francisco Bay area. The company’s focus is to develop superior competence and technologies for the engineering of human recombinant antibodies useful for in vivo detection and therapeutic intervention, and to generate a fully human antibody-based product pipeline through in-house programs and strategic collaborations with pharma and biotech companies.
The group
The Molecular-Based Antibody Screening (MBAS) group of Affitech is collaborating with Hoffman La Roche, NatImmune, Peregrine and the Radium Hospital in Oslo to deliver human antibodies against small molecules and protein targets. Our technology includes a phagemid system containing full-length pIII phage protein as a display scaffold for antibodies. This is covered by worldwide patents known as the ‘Breitling’ family of patents. In addition, our proprietary AffiScreeNTM method utilises direct isolation of human antibodies from donor tissue (vaccines, patients). By eliminating the need for pre-selection, the new process ensures that antibodies are chosen primarily for their binding characteristics. The process is automated (robot screening), and thus, extremely time and cost effective.
Our role in EET-Pipeline
In order to improve on the low survival rates of patients with disseminated embryonal childhood cancers, there is an urgent need to develop specific therapeutic tools. We will focus on developing antibodies against suitable human cancer target molecules for both diagnosis and therapy. For repeated administration of antibodies to patients they should be non-immunogenic. The antibodies selected from Affitech’s antibody libraries are of human origin, and are perfect reagents for administration and should prove to be excellent tools in fighting against cancer.
Staff Member
People in
Photograph:
From top left:
Dr.
Herald Reiersen, Group Leader MBAS, Mrs. Mari Nyquist-Andersen, Chemical
Engineer, Dr. Björn Cochlovius, Director R & D.
2nd row from left:
Ms. Benedikte Hobaek, Scientist, Ms. Lene Camilla Riise, Scientist, Dr.
Anita Kavlie, Senior Scientist.
Not present:
Ms. Elisabeth Stubsrud, Scientist, Mrs Marit Hindrum, Engineer, Mrs.
Vibeke Aarskog, Scientist.)
Top 5 publications
1. Loset GA, Lobersli I, Kavlie A, Stacy JE, Borgen T, Kausmally L, Hvattum E, Simonsen B, Hovda MB, Brekke OH. Construction, evaluation and refinement of a large human antibody phage library based on the IgD and IgM variable gene repertoire. J Immunol Methods 299: 47-62 (2005).
2. Reiersen H, Lobersli I, Loset GA, Hvattum E, Simonsen B, Stacy JE, McGregor D, Fitzgerald K, Welschof M, Brekke OH, Marvik OJ. Covalent antibody display – an in vitro antibody-DNA library selection system. Nucleic acids Res. 33:e10 (2005).
3. Kausmally L, Waalen K, Lobersli I, Hvattum E, Berntsen G, Michaelsen TE, Brekke OH. Neutralizing human antibodies to varicella –zoster virus (VZV) derived from a VZV patient recombinant antibody library. J Gen Virol. 85:3493-500 (2004).
4. Stacy JE, Kausmally L, Simonsen B, Nordgaard SH, Alsoe L, Michaelsen TE, Brekke OH. Direct isolation of recombinant human antibodies against group B Neisseria meningitides from scFv expression libraries. J Immunol Methods 283:247-59 (2003).
5. Brekke OH, Sandlie I. Therapeutic antibodies for human diseases at the dawn of the twenty-first century. Nat Rev Drug Discov. 2: 52-62 (2003).