Domantis gets aid to develop novel drugs

Domantis, the domain antibody company formerly known as Diversys, has been awarded funding as part of a European Commission Framework 5 Grant. A consortium of companies and academic groups, assembled by immunologist Professor Ivan Roitt, will focus on the development of novel therapeutics to combat microbial infection. Domantis will receive financial support from the EC to identify domain antibodies that inhibit bacterial and yeast infections at mucosal surfaces and will retain commercial rights to any lead compounds it develops.

The grant was awarded to a consortium of six academic institutions and three companies from four different European countries, and totals €2.4m (US$2.3m) over the course of the three-year term. Professor Roitt said: 'Selecting highly specific inhibitors of microbial infection is an essential part of this work.'

According to Domantis chief scientific officer Ian Tomlinson, domain antibodies could make ideal products for inhibiting microbial targets due to their small size and ability to be administered by non-intravenous delivery.

Domain antibodies, or dAbs, are the smallest functional binding units of antibodies, consisting of the variable regions of either the heavy (VH) or light (VL) chain. These molecules are less than one-tenth the size of a full IgG antibody. Domantis has created a range of large and highly diverse libraries of domain antibodies, which it uses as a source of potent drugs that interact with targets of interest. In this way, Domantis is able to combine the advantages of antibodies - enormous natural diversity and high specificity - with the lower manufacturing costs and multiple modes of delivery of smaller compounds.