SAN FRANCISCO– Tegmine Therapeutics today announced an investment from Alloy Therapeutics and a collaboration to accelerate the development of antibody therapeutics that target proteins carrying cancer-associated glycan post-translational modifications (PTMs). Tegmine will generate immunogens and cell line screening reagents which reflect patient biology and Alloy will lead the antibody discovery and hit validation.
Tegmine’s programs address highly specific antibody targets in solid tumor indications with unmet needs, where expression of aberrant glycosylation has been shown to be a hallmark of immune suppression, metastasis, and resistance to chemotherapy. Tegmine’s discovery capabilities include CRISPR-engineered TegMiner Cells which recapitulate cancer-associated aberrant glycosylation and custom mass spectrometry workflows to identify proteins and PTM-epitopes expressed in primary tumor tissues.
“We are driven to develop novel therapeutics which account for disease-specific protein modifications, enabling the targeting of cancer driver proteins and providing hope for patients without great options,” said Jeff Bernstein, co-founder and CEO of Tegmine. “The technology to measure and understand the impact of glycans on cancer progression is rapidly advancing. Using our proprietary TegMiner Cells and mass spectrometry, we are identifying more specific, cancer-modified epitopes. We are very enthusiastic about this collaboration with Alloy Therapeutics. Alloy has a superior platform for identifying the best human antibodies using its comprehensive offering of in vivo, in vitro, and in silico technologies which, combined with our tumor-specific immunogens, will go far in developing the next generation of cancer therapies.”
“We are proud to partner with Tegmine on this promising program to address unmet needs in cancer treatment,” said Errik Anderson, CEO of Alloy Therapeutics. “Pairing Tegmine’s robust mass spectrometry discovery platform with Alloy’s best-in-class, fully human antibody discovery services offering unlocks the powerful ability to identify epitope-specific antibodies specific to patient cancer biology.”
