Avacta Group PLC Robust performance of Affimers on Luminex platform
October 09 2015 - 2:00AM
RNS Non-Regulatory
TIDMAVCT
Avacta Group PLC
09 October 2015
09 October 2015
Avacta Group plc
("Avacta" or "the Group")
Avacta's collaborator ProtATonce demonstrates robust performance
of Affimers on Luminex platform
Results presented at Biomarker Summit Europe, Berlin
Avacta Group plc (AIM: AVCT), the developer of Affimer(R)
biotherapeutics and research reagents, is pleased to announce that
its collaborator, ProtATonce, has demonstrated the first use of
Affimers in assays on the market leading Luminex platform. Their
results were presented at the Biomarker Summit Europe in Berlin,
5-8 October 2015.
In February 2015, Avacta Life Sciences and ProtATonce announced
a collaboration to evaluate Affimers as affinity reagents in the
Luminex platform and, if possible, to develop Affimer-based assays
with market leading levels of multiplexing. ProtATonce has now
evaluated several dual antibody/Affimer multiplex assays and has
shown that Affimers can be used either as capture or as detection
reagents and can deliver robust bead-based ELISA assays. These
results were presented at the Biomarker Europe Summit on 5 October
2015.
ProtATonce is one of a number of exclusive Luminex partners
selected to develop and commercialise multiplexed assays as a
service offering on the market leading Luminex xMAP(TM) platform
which enables large numbers of biological tests to be conducted and
analysed quickly using bead-based assay kits. The Luminex
technology is capable of carrying out up to 500 tests in one
experiment, but this high level of multiplexing is only possible if
the antibodies that are used in the test kits are specific and show
no cross reactivity between tests. The cross reactivity of
antibodies significantly limits the degree of multiplexing of the
Luminex technology to a few dozen tests.
Affimers are an engineered alternative to antibodies which have
the potential to solve the issues of cross reactivity and unlock
the potential of high performance multiplex assay platforms such as
Luminex. They offer several advantages including thermostability,
pH resistance, stability during freeze drying, and smaller size
which means higher packing density on the assay surfaces.
Dr Alastair Smith, Chief Executive Officer of Avacta
commented:
"I am delighted with the collaboration with ProtATonce and the
progress that they have made in setting up the assays and
evaluating Affimers on the Luminex platform. It is critical at this
early stage of commercialisation of Affimer reagents that they
perform well in the hands of collaborators and customers and the
number of such examples are building quickly.
We're particularly excited by Affimers robust performance on the
Luminex platform, the market leading multiplex assay technology, as
it presents a significant commercial opportunity for Affimer-based
multiplexed assays."
Dr Leonidas Alexopoulos, Chief Executive Officer of ProtATonce
said:
"Affimers are a great alternative to antibodies and we are
excited about their initial performance on bead-based multiplex
assays. In the last few months we have worked hard to develop new
coupling chemistries on assay surface that take advantage of the
Affimer's small size and packing density. We have successfully
built a robust dual antibody/Affimer multiplex assay and we look
forward to further expanding our Affimer-based multiplex
portfolio."
Enquiries:
Avacta Group plc Tel: +44 (0) 844 414
Alastair Smith, Chief Executive Officer 0452
Tim Sykes, Chief Financial Officer www.avacta.com
Numis Securities Limited Tel: +44 (0) 207 260
Michael Meade / Freddie Barnfield - Nominated 1000
Adviser www.numiscorp.com
James Black - Corporate Broking
WG Partners Tel: +44 (0) 203 705
David Wilson 9318
Nigel Barnes Tel: +44 (0) 203 705
Claes Spang 9217
www.wgpartners.co.uk
Media Enquiries Tel: +44 (0) 203 727
FTI Consulting 1000
Simon Conway / Natalie Garland-Collins avacta@fticonsulting.com
Notes to Editors
Avacta Group plc (www.avacta.com)
Avacta Group plc is a global provider of innovative
technologies, consumables and reagents for the life science
markets, from drug discovery to diagnostics. Avacta's principal
focus is on its proprietary Affimer(R) technology which is a novel
engineered alternative to antibodies that has wide application in
Life Sciences for diagnostics, therapeutics and general research
and development.
Antibodies dominate markets worth in excess of $50bn despite
their shortcomings. Affimers have been designed to address many of
these negative performance issues, principally: the time taken to
generate new antibodies, the reliance on an animal's immune
response, poor specificity in many cases, and batch to batch
variability. Affimers are based on a small protein that can be
quickly generated to bind with high specificity and affinity to a
wide range of protein targets.
Avacta is commercialising Affimer reagents through custom
Affimer services to provide bespoke solutions to customers, via a
growing on-line catalogue of Affimer reagents and, in the longer
term, by developing Affimers with therapeutic properties for
out-licensing.
This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
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