Amgen and theUniversity of Washington'sInstitute for Protein Design (IPD), which creates custom-designed proteins from scratch to improve human health, have announced a broad collaboration that will cover multiple projects with a goal of testing new technologies and creating protein-building approaches that can be broadly applied to the search for new medicines.

 

Under the terms of the agreement, Amgen has provided initial funding for three sponsored research projects that will seek to apply IPD'sde novodesign technique to increase the versatility of traditional protein-based medicines. This will include optimizing Amgen's repertoire of BiTE(bispecific T cell engager) antibodies, with the goal of expanding the types of tumors that can be targeted with these molecules. IPD's expertise could also help Amgen to generate antibodies against very challenging drug targets and to devise new ways to modulate the activity of the immune system. In the longer-term, the broad-based collaboration could help shape the discovery and development of protein-based therapies.

 

The Institute for Protein Design, founded in 2012 at UW Medicine inSeattle, is a non-profit research center that creates custom-designed proteins to improve human health and address 21st-century challenges in energy, industry and technology. Proteins are essential molecules that perform vital functions inside every cell of the human body. Proteins also have applications outside the body, including as diagnostic tools, advanced nanomaterials, and more. The Institute's team of 140 faculty, staff, postdoctoral fellows and graduate students together work to design entirely novel proteins from scratch to create, for example, safer and more potent vaccines and therapeutics. The institute has assembled top experts in biochemistry, computer science, pharmacology, immunology and other basic sciences, as well as clinical medicine. In 2019, the Institute for Protein Design was selected as part of The Audacious Project, a successor to the TED Prize

Amgen and IPD collaboration will cover multiple projects with a goal of testing new technologies and creating protein-building approaches that can be applied to the search for new medicines.