Atreca Announces Publication of HIV Research in Cell

REDWOOD CITY, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Atreca, Inc., a biotechnology company focused on developing novel therapeutics based on a deep understanding of the human immune response, announced today publication of research focused on HIV that was enabled by Atreca’s Immune Repertoire Capture^® (IRC™) technology and carried out in collaboration with researchers at the Institute of Human Virology (IHV) at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore VA Medical Center, and Harvard Medical School. As reported in an article appearing in Cell (DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2018.03.061), Mohammad Sajadi, MD, Associate Professor of Medicine at the IHV, Atreca scientists, and their collaborators identified antibodies with exceptional activity directed against HIV from individuals with serum activity capable of potently neutralizing genetically diverse strains of the virus. By combining a proteomic analysis of serum antibodies with highly accurate IRC™ antibody sequencing, the researchers discovered antibodies that collectively recapitulated the anti-viral activity measured in the donors’ blood. Included amongst these antibodies was a family of potently neutralizing antibodies with the broadest HIV-specific activity described to date in the scientific literature.

“The findings published in Cell demonstrate the power of our IRC™ platform to identify novel HIV-specific broadly neutralizing antibodies (bNAbs),” commented Guy Cavet, Ph.D., Atreca’s Chief Technical Officer and Co-Founder, as well as co-author on the published research. “In addition to discovering a family of antibodies with exceptionally broad and potent anti-HIV activity, we have also shown that broad neutralization in an individual can be accounted for by a small number of active antibody lineages generated during the course of HIV infection. We believe these findings can help establish a new framework for therapeutic and vaccine discovery for HIV and other viruses.”

“While oncology immunotherapy constitutes the focus of our R&D programs, we continue to expand the application of our discovery engine to other disease settings,” said John A. Orwin, Atreca’s President and Chief Executive Officer. “Fundamental to our approach across indications is our ability both to capture with extreme fidelity the antibody response in patients having exceptional immune responses and to translate those unique data into novel therapeutic candidates designed to fill unmet and compelling needs in broad patient populations. We are very pleased that our research has been published in Cell and look forward to exploring the full potential of these antibodies to help alleviate the global burden of HIV disease.”

About Atreca, Inc.

Atreca is a privately held biotechnology company developing novel therapeutics drawn from human immune responses, including effective anti-cancer immune responses. We are able to measure and analyze the structure of clinically relevant immune responses to identify the antibodies, T cell receptors (TCRs), and targets that are key to successful treatment outcomes. Atreca’s proprietary Immune Repertoire Capture^® (IRC^™) technology profiles a patient’s immune response at the single-cell level at very high throughput essentially without bias or error. This approach enables the identification, generation, and analysis of functional human antibody and TCR sequences from single B and T cells without prior knowledge of antigen. Atreca is advancing a pipeline of candidates designed to engage the human immune response in oncology and other indications, thus driving better therapeutic outcomes. For more information on Atreca, please visit www.atreca.com.

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