Integral Molecular has announced the launch of the Membrane Proteome Array (MPA), a rapid and reliable platform for de-risking therapeutic development by profiling the target specificity of antibodies and other biologics.
Off-target drug binding accounts for half of all safety failures during clinical drug development. The MPA reduces this risk by testing biotherapeutic candidates for off-target binding early in the development process, potentially saving millions of dollars and increasing patient safety.
This high-throughput technology determines the reactivity of antibodies against nearly the complete human membrane proteome (4,500 different membrane proteins, each individually expressed in human cells), allowing rapid screening of anything from entire antibody lead panels to individual preclinical candidates.
“We are extremely excited to announce the MPA, a technology founded on Integral Molecular’s fifteen years of membrane protein experience,” says Integral Molecular CEO, Benjamin Doranz, adding that “the sensitivity of this technology allows detection of low-level off-target binding, de-risking the selection of lead candidates.”
The MPA has already been used to de-risk the development of internal and partner antibodies by identifying off-target binding that could cause patient side-effects, thereby informing final lead selection in therapeutic antibody programs. In addition, the MPA is currently being used to identify the targets of orphan antibodies and protein ligands, resulting in new intellectual property, novel therapeutic targets, and new disease biomarkers.
The MPA will be presented this week at the Discovery on Target conference in Boston (September 19-22, 2016).
Integral Molecular is a research-driven biotechnology company creating a pipeline of therapeutic antibodies against under-exploited membrane protein targets, including GPCRs, ion channels, transporters, and viral envelope proteins, using its proprietary MPS Discovery Engine®.