Valens™ Rescues Antibody for Liver Disease Research

Dr. Matthew Burchill explains how Abterra Bio’s technology, Valens  rescued his antibody and enabled him to continue his research in chronic liver disease.

“The sequencing provided is instrumental to our work as the original hybridoma that produces this antibody is no longer available. Thus, without this service we would not be able to continue this project in the current form.”

Introduction

Chronic liver disease is currently the fourth leading cause of death in the United States and there are few effective therapeutics that can reduce the morbidity and mortality associated with chronic liver disease. Dr. Matthew Burchill’s lab at the University of Colorado- Anschutz Medical Campus aims to define the cellular and molecular factors that drive the progression of chronic liver disease. His research includes the studies of T lymphocytes and antibodies that can contribute to the development of chronic liver disease. From their studies, they have targeted an antibody of interest. This antibody plays a crucial role in solving their challenge, Dr. Burchill states, “specifically, we are going to use modifications of this antibody to remove pathogenic T cells from the liver during chronic disease.” Due to an unfortunate event, his collaborator lost the hybridoma cells that were used to produce the antibody. Dr. Burchill came to us for help because he needs the “sequence of this antibody in order to modify it for therapeutic use to deplete liver resident T cells” and our method is the only way that can sequence an antibody directly from the protein.

The Power of De Novo Antibody Sequencing

Knowing the antibody sequence is an important part of characterizing an antibody, filing for IP protection, and reducing the disruption of work in the event of hybridoma loss. To ensure accurate antibody characterization, de novo antibody sequencing must be highly accurate with unambiguous assignment of all amino acid residues. Abterra Bio’s Valens™ method utilizes state of the art mass spectrometery to analyze the peptides. We have developed in-house proprietary software to assemble the mass spectra into a comprehensive and complete sequence.

Valens™ is Empowering More Research

Dr. Burchill offered his perspective on the impact of de novo sequencing and how it can solve many problems in immunology. He says “ I see this technology allowing for the re-engineering of previous tools for novel applications.” At Abterra Bio, Valens™ has been used to recover missing sequences, to reconstruct antibodies for in-house testing, and to diagnose batch to batch variation for QC production.

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