LONDON (ShareCast) - (Sharecast News) - Immunodiagnostics group Oncimmune has signed a new master service agreement with Augmenta Bioworks, it announced on Wednesday, to profile patient plasma samples and characterise therapeutic candidates discovered through Augmenta's 'SingleCyte' and 'DeepGrid' discovery platforms.
The AIM-traded firm described Augmenta as a California-based biotechnology company, which works with leading pharmaceutical companies, biotechnology companies and research institutions, to discover new therapies by identifying the human immune system's protective response to diseases.

It said the first project to be undertaken under the agreement would use Oncimmune's oncology 'SeroTag' technology to identify specific therapeutic antibodies that bind to human antigens found in cancer patients.

That analysis would provide insight into clinical efficacy, as well as off-target and non-specific binding as an indicator, for example, for adverse events.

Additionally, under the agreement an option to substantially increase the number of samples analysed, and to run those samples over Oncimmune's infectious disease panel, was made available.

On 6 October, the company announced its participation in the 'IMmunity Profiling of pAtients with Covid-19 for Therapy and Triage' (IMPACTT) programme to develop and validate an 'Infectious Disease NavigAID' panel, designed to predict Covid-19 disease severity and therapeutic response.

"We are delighted to be partnering with such a progressive and respected organisation as Augmenta on this important programme," said chief executive officer Adam Hill.

"Oncimmune's proven SeroTag proprietary biomarker discovery engine is ideally suited to this project.

"We are also excited about the prospect of, once again, utilising our infectious diseases panel to help support the fight against Covid-19."

At 0933 GMT, shares in Oncimmune Holdings were up 1.96% at 168.75p.

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