Allozyne is a clinical stage

biotechnology Biotechnology is the integration of natural sciences and engineering sciences in order to achieve the application of organisms, cells, parts thereof and molecular analogues for products and services. The term ''biotechnology'' was first used ...

company headquartered in

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

's biotech and high tech innovation corridor. Allozyne was founded in 2005 by

California Institute of Technology The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech or CIT)The university itself only spells its short form as "Caltech"; the institution considers other spellings such a"Cal Tech" and "CalTech" incorrect. The institute is also occasional ...

researchers, and was incubated by Accelerator Corporation. Its lead product candidate, AZ01, is a long acting interferon beta for the treatment of the relapsing remitting form of multiple sclerosis, a chronic degenerative disease characterized by

demyelination A demyelinating disease is any disease of the nervous system in which the myelin sheath of neurons is damaged. This damage impairs the conduction of signals in the affected nerves. In turn, the reduction in conduction ability causes deficiency i ...

of nerve fibers leading to severe nerve damage and increasing disability. Multiple sclerosis is estimated to affect 400,000 individuals in the US alone and 2.5 million worldwide. AZ01 is currently undergoing Phase I clinical trials in the US. Preclinical data indicates that AZ01 has the potential to be dosed once monthly compared to the current standard of care dosed anywhere from once daily to once per week. Allozyne's technology also enables the development of next generation

antibody-drug conjugates Antibody-drug conjugates or ADCs are a class of biopharmaceutical drugs designed as a targeted therapy for treating cancer. Unlike chemotherapy, ADCs are intended to target and kill tumor cells while sparing healthy cells. As of 2019, some 56 phar ...

(ADCs). This approach results in homogeneous ADC products that are stably conjugated. In 2014, Allozyne was acquired by

MedImmune MedImmune, LLC was a wholly owned subsidiary of AstraZeneca before February 14, 2019, when it was announced that the MedImmune name and branding would be discontinued in favor of AstraZeneca. MedImmune was founded in 1988 as Molecular Vaccines, ...

, based on its ADC technology. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Platform and therapeutic focus

Allozyne has a therapeutic focus on chronic

central nervous system The central nervous system (CNS) is the part of the nervous system consisting primarily of the brain and spinal cord. The CNS is so named because the brain integrates the received information and coordinates and influences the activity of all p ...

and autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis and Crohn's disease. Their two platforms, Caesar and Vigenère, enable the creation of novel therapeutics that address unmet medical need associated with these diseases. The names of the two platforms were inspired by the two

encryption In cryptography, encryption is the process of encoding information. This process converts the original representation of the information, known as plaintext, into an alternative form known as ciphertext. Ideally, only authorized parties can de ...

techniques used prior to, and during,

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

known as the Caesar cipher and

Vigenère cipher The Vigenère cipher () is a method of encrypting alphabetic text by using a series of interwoven Caesar ciphers, based on the letters of a keyword. It employs a form of polyalphabetic substitution. First described by Giovan Battista Bella ...

. These platforms, like historical ciphering technologies, involve changes to the way messages are interpreted. These changes include modifications to the cellular machinery of both E. coli and mammalian cells so that the information encrypted in their DNA can introduce a variety of protein building blocks beyond the 20 that are found in all proteins throughout nature. This process of biological encryption has come to be known as "biociphering". Additional available building blocks enable the creation more advanced protein therapeutics. The ability to customize the intrinsic properties and location of the 21st

amino acid Amino acids are organic compounds that contain both amino and carboxylic acid functional groups. Although hundreds of amino acids exist in nature, by far the most important are the alpha-amino acids, which comprise proteins. Only 22 alpha a ...

, allows for a variety of bioconjugation chemistries to be directed to any specific location within the protein. These biociphering platforms have opened the door to new protein therapeutic configurations including antibody-toxin, antibody-antibody, long acting as well as others. Application of these platforms to the development of protein based therapeutics enable therapeutics that address areas of unmet medical need. The first application of this technology was used to incorporate a variety of methionine analogs into human recombinant interferon beta. One azide containing methionine analog was selected for its compatibility with a bioconjugation chemistry developed by Nobel Laureate, K. Barry Sharpless of The Scripps Research Institute, known as " Click chemistry This chemistry enabled the engineering of a long acting form of human interferon beta by conjugation to a

half-life Half-life (symbol ) is the time required for a quantity (of substance) to reduce to half of its initial value. The term is commonly used in nuclear physics to describe how quickly unstable atoms undergo radioactive decay or how long stable at ...

extending moiety known as

polyethylene glycol Polyethylene glycol (PEG; ) is a polyether compound derived from petroleum with many applications, from industrial manufacturing to medicine. PEG is also known as polyethylene oxide (PEO) or polyoxyethylene (POE), depending on its molecular we ...

(PEG). Results were presented at the 2007 national ACS meeting. On July 15, 2010, Allozybe announced the signing of an exclusive license agreement with The Scripps Research Institute for Click chemistry.

References

External links

* {{Coord, 47.63415, N, 122.326789, W, display=t AstraZeneca Companies based in Seattle Pharmaceutical companies established in 2005 Pharmaceutical companies of the United States Health care companies based in Washington (state) 2014 mergers and acquisitions