New data demonstrate the IL-22 AND-Body™ therapeutic, AMP-220, selectively targets gut tissue, conferring improved therapeutic efficacy and tolerability in vivo
IND-enabling studies for AMP-220 are ongoing
BOSTON, April 20, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Ampersand Biomedicines, a Flagship Pioneering multi-product platform company developing smarter medicines that act specifically at the site of disease and nowhere else, today announced new preclinical data for AMP-220, a gut-targeted IL-22 AND-Body™ therapeutic. The data were shared in an oral presentation at IMMUNOLOGY2026, the annual meeting of the American Association of Immunologists (AAI), held April 15-19, 2026. The presentation highlighted AMP-220's ability to selectively drive IL-22 activity in the gut epithelium, delivering therapeutic benefit in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) models while avoiding off-target toxicities.
"IL-22 is a highly promising cytokine for restoring epithelial barrier function and promoting mucosal healing in IBD, but its clinical utility has been limited by adverse activity in non-target tissues such as the skin. By programming IL-22 activity specifically to the gut, AMP-220 is designed to unlock the therapeutic promise of this pathway with improved precision, potency, and tolerability," said Daniël Blom, Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer of Ampersand Biomedicines. "The data we presented across multiple in vitro and in vivo models demonstrate that AMP-220 has an expanded therapeutic window compared to other IL-22 approaches, giving us confidence in its potential as a better medicine for IBD patients in need."
Prior IL-22-based therapies have been constrained by dose-limiting toxicities due to systemic exposure. AMP-220 is a selective IL-22R-targeted AND-Body™ therapeutic designed with Ampersand's Address, Navigate, Determine (AND)™ Platform that combines a proprietary gut epithelium-specific targeting moiety with an engineered IL-22 cytokine mutein that is conditionally active only upon co-localization to the gut.
Preclinical findings show that AMP-220 demonstrated highly potent and selective activity in human intestinal epithelial cells, including up to 2,000-fold greater potency with no off-target activity compared to a non-targeted IL-22 control in vitro. In a mouse model of colitis, AMP-220 significantly mitigated disease-associated weight loss and drove resolution of disease, supporting its therapeutic potential in IBD. In non-human primates, an AMP-220 analog achieved increased pharmacologic activity in the colon with reduced systemic and skin-associated effects compared to an IL-22 control, further supporting an improved therapeutic index.
"We are encouraged by the preclinical performance of AMP-220, which demonstrates the power of our AND-Body™ approach to precisely deliver cytokine activity only to the tissues where it is needed most," said Jason Gardner, D.Phil., Chief Executive Officer and President of Ampersand Biomedicines and CEO-Partner at Flagship Pioneering. "These data reinforce the broader potential of our AND™ Platform to create highly selective, next-generation biologics across multiple disease areas, and exemplify how our approach can advance differentiated programs like AMP-220. We look forward to advancing our ongoing IND-enabling studies with the potential of entering the clinic with AMP-220 next year."
About Ampersand Biomedicines
Ampersand Biomedicines enables a new way of programming medicines that work precisely where needed in the body and nowhere else. The company's computationally powered Address, Navigate, Determine (AND)™ Platform identifies ideal addresses for drug localization and informs the design of AND-Body™ therapeutics that have the optimal therapeutic effect. AND-Body therapeutics combine a localizing antibody that enables cell-specific precision with an actuator specifically chosen for disease modification. This approach enables improved target engagement while sparing on-target, off-tissue side effects. Ampersand Biomedicines was founded by Flagship Labs, the innovation foundry of Flagship Pioneering, in 2021. For more information, please visit www.ampersand.bio, and follow us on LinkedIn.
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SOURCE Ampersand Biomedicines
