New strategic partnership to develop next-generation T cell detection reagents

SHANGHAI, China and COPENHAGEN, Denmark, July 2, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Today two MedTech companies, Polaris Biology of China and Tetramer Shop of Denmark, announce a strategic partnership to co-develop and distribute technologies that accelerate T cell science. First on the agenda is to commercialize metal-labelled MHC tetramers for distribution in China.

Conventional fluorophore labelled tetramers are restricted by spectral overlap and compensation issues. With quick, easy access to metal-labelled tetramers, researchers will be able to detect hundreds of T cell specificities in a single sample, accelerating therapeutic development.

"Our partnership with Tetramer Shop will allow us to extend our immunophenotyping capability to antigen specificity analysis," says Shuangwu Sun, partner of Polaris Biology. "And our co-development of metal-labelled tetramers will enable us to accelerate our high-throughput single-cell analysis capacity. This has positive implications for the development of personalized therapeutic modalities here in China."

Founder and CEO of Tetramer Shop, Søren N. Jakobsen, says, "Since our first contact, we have been impressed by the expertise and diligence of the Polaris team, Dr. Shuangwu Sun and colleagues, within state-of-the-art single-cell analysis technologies. We could not have found a better partner and we are looking forward to a fruitful endeavour."

Empty loadable MHC tetramers as the foundation

Tetramer Shop is applying its proprietary empty loadable MHC technology to the development of the metal-labelled tetramer. This technology holds the potential to develop a new generation of MHC tetramers for the analysis of T cell immune monitoring.

While algorithms are becoming a key tool for predicting neoantigens/neoepitopes in the context of MHC, verifying existing or raised T cells against weak self-antigens remains a bottleneck. Empty loadable MHC tetramers are an effective tool for exploring existing and raised T cells against neoantigens in immuno-oncology as well as in the development of cancer vaccines and T cell therapy.

"Empty loadable MHC tetramers offer the researcher the possibility of testing hundreds of peptide antigens in parallel," says Jakobsen. "Our MHC tetramer solution offers fast, easy detection of antigen-specific T cells, extreme stability and specificity, excellent value, and ease of use."

Accelerating therapeutic development in China

Under the agreement, Polaris commences the sale and distribution of MHC tetramer reagents from Tetramer Shop on the rapidly expanding Chinese market for T cell immune monitoring and antigen specificity profiling.

"We are excited to partner with Tetramer Shop and to help bring their expertise and game-changing MHC tetramer products to the market," says Shuangwu Sun. "The collaboration will significantly benefit the treatment of cancer, autoimmune diseases and infectious diseases by accelerating the development of personalized therapeutic modalities, including vaccines, T cells and T cell engagers."

About Polaris Biology

Polaris Biology is committed to providing accurate, safe and reliable high-throughput single-cell precision diagnostic solutions. Polaris Biology have developed single-cell technology platforms and related assays to monitor pharmacodynamic effect and to predict response for a wide spectrum of therapeutics. The solutions have been developed and deployed in multiple clinical practices, supporting smarter treatments.

About Tetramer Shop

Tetramer Shop serves a range of global customers from academic research institutions to therapeutic development labs including cancer vaccine and T cell therapy development. Based in Denmark's Medicon Valley, Tetramer Shop is driven by the unique capabilities of their technology and aims to democratize high-performance MHC tetramers to make the testing and monitoring of antigen-specific T cells faster, more efficient and affordable for any lab.

For more information, please contact:

Polaris Biology
Email: [email protected]
Office line: +86 21 5089 5313
https://www.polarisbiology.com/ 

Tetramer Shop
Email: [email protected]
Office line: +45 6018 3764
https://tetramer-shop.com/

SOURCE Polaris Biology; Tetramer Shop