Tumor antigen target discovery
The CellCarta® platform has been used to discover novel and valuable insights for targeting and treating cancer and infectious diseases. In these programs Caprion combines the power of CellCarta® with unique cell biology expertise in the area of cell fractionation to isolate cellular organelles such as the plasma membrane and phagosome to an unprecedented degree of purity. By enriching for these subcellular compartments, Caprion enables more comprehensive proteomic comparisons of normal and diseased cells and provides the biological and functional context for the identification of high value, disease-relevant protein targets
Caprion’s oncology program is focused on the discovery of novel cell surface tumor-specific antigen targets for the development of targeted cancer therapies and diagnostics. Caprion accesses research-quality human normal and tumor surgical tissue specimens through collaborations with more than six university hospitals, and uses its proprietary cell fractionation techniques to generate highly purified plasma membrane preparations from epithelial cells contained in both the normal and tumor regions of tissue specimens from over 30 patients. Caprion then uses CellCarta® to identify proteins that are reproducibly and highly over-expressed in the tumors of a high proportion of patients. To-date the oncology program has successfully identified a comprehensive database of biologically relevant novel tumor cell-surface targets in three major cancer indications (colon, lung, prostate). Approximately 50% of these targets have been out-licensed as part of Caprion’s established partnerships with three leading Mab players (with Caprion retaining full rights to the remaining 50% of these targets). Caprion is also actively pursuing similar target discovery programs in other tumor types for which Caprion has yet to establish a corporate collaboration.