Prellis Biologics Announces Collaboration with Sanofi

Published: Mar 22, 2022

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Prellis Biologics, Inc. (Prellis), a Bay Area biotherapeutics company, announced today that it has entered into a collaboration and license option agreement with Sanofi S.A. focused on the discovery of antibodies with Prellis’ first-in-class external human immune system (EXIS™). The collaboration leverages Prellis’ ability to engineer fully-human lymph node organoids (LNOs™) and recreate immune responses in vitro to deliver antibodies with significant genetic diversity.

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Microscopy image of a Lymph Node Organoid (LNO™), used to recapture human immune responses in vitro. (Graphic: Business Wire)

Under the terms of the agreement, Prellis and Sanofi will collaborate on the generation of human antibodies for a target of interest. In return for an undisclosed up-front payment, Sanofi receives an exclusive option to license, develop and further commercialize the resulting antibodies.

"The EXIS platform provides an unparalleled ability to recreate lymph node organoids in vitro. This powerful technology enables investigation of human B- and T-cell responses for a variety of applications, including antibody discovery and therapeutic immunogenicity,” said Melanie P. Matheu, PhD, Founder and CEO of Prellis Biologics. “We are delighted to work in collaboration with Sanofi in novel antibody research with our differentiated approach.”

“Recreating the human immune response and breaking tolerance to human antigens, in the EXIS platform allows us to rapidly identify an expansive set of high-quality antibodies,” said Kevin Chapman, PhD and CSO of Prellis.

About Prellis

Prellis Biologics, Inc. utilizes its proprietary, high-resolution bioprinting technology to recreate and engineer human tissues in vitro. A key application is Prellis’ Externalized Immune System, EXIS, which through the creation of lymph node organoids (LNOs) precisely reproduces the human immune response in vitro. With EXIS, Prellis is able to exploit fully-human immune responses for a variety of applications, including antibody discovery, immunogenicity screening, and T-cell epitope discovery, amongst others. Prellis further leverages its industry dominant bioprinting expertise for advanced tissue and disease models in combination with EXIS to accelerate and de-risk drug discovery of novel therapeutics. Prellis is dedicated to improving patients’ lives by addressing challenges commonly faced in early-stage drug discovery and translational pharmacology. Prellis Biologics, Inc. is a privately held company based in the San Francisco Bay Area, CA. Learn more at prellisbio.com.