Immunopig/Immunocow

This program is focused on producing therapeutic fully human polyclonal antibodies for a variety of infectious disease applications. This program is currently fully funded by a 3-year, $3.1 million grant from The U.S. Department of Defense ("DARPA"). While the initial targets involve prophylactic countermeasures to biowarfare pathogens (i.e. Anthrax, Ebola, and Smallpox), non-military commercial targets are retained by Revivicor. Revivicor plans to out license rights to commercial applications to pharmaceutical and biotech companies as a way to generate near term revenue, and later, a royalty stream on marketed products through these partners.

Using our knowledge in gene targeting technology, the immunoglobulin (Ig) or antibody coding genes (heavy and light chain genes) are knocked out or deleted in pig cells and cow cells, and used to clone pigs and cows that lack their natural antibody production capability. Through our collaboration with Dr. Marianne Bruggeman at the Babraham Institute (UK), we obtained technology for introducing human antibody-producing genes into skin fibroblasts, thus we have the know-how and resources required to replace the pig or cow Ig genes with their human equivalents. The cloning technology then provides the tool to create large herds of animals which have their own antibodies replaced with human ones. These genetically modified animals, when challenged with an infectious disease agent (i.e. Anthrax) will be able to produce large volumes of human polyclonal antibody against that agent in their blood. Thousands of therapeutic doses can be obtained from a single animal, capable of protecting soldiers in the field or civilians exposed in a bioterrorist attack.

This technology has broad reaching applications in treating human disease including flu, hepatitis, HIV, CMV, antibiotic-resistant infections, cancer, and autoimmune disease.

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