Originally developed for in-house testing, the company’s Advanced peripheral blood Hematopoietic Chimera (“ApbHC”) is a novel type of humanized mouse that presents several advantages over existing mouse models. It has applications for disease modelling and drug development, and potentially for biodefence.
ApbHC can be used for testing multi-specific antibodies targetting blood malignancies as well as other types of cancers. ApbHC may also be used for the testing of new cell therapies involving immune cell reprogramming. The ApbHC is already being used for the modeling of autoimmune diseases, such as lupus, with the goal of developing fundamentally new treatments for those diseases. Furthermore, the ApbHC could potentially be used as a tool for the rapid development and/or isolation of human antibodies against unknown human-specific pathogens (biodefence applications).
The major advantage of the ApbHC is the absence of Graft versus Host Disease, a disease that complicates and often renders impossible the efficient use of peripheral blood mononuclear cells in transplanted mice.
The ApbHC is proving to be of considerable interest to other drug developers. The group has signed a number of collaboration agreements to develop mouse models of diseases and test drugs.
Hemogenyx Pharmaceuticals has established a subsidiary, Immugenyx LLC, to further develop and commercialize the ApbHC. Immugenyx is also leveraging the unique properties of AHC itself to discover and develop novel treatments for autoimmune diseases.