Protein Innovation Labs, Inc. — Department of Health and Human Services SBIR Phase I: NIAID

Description

The zebrafish is as an extraordinary model organism that provides unique opportunities for probing vertebrate biologywith direct implications for human physiology and diseaseThere exists a significant need to enhance and broaden the utility of this model with the development of new tools and strategiesNotablyantibodies are available for fewer thanof theknown zebrafish proteinsand the majority of these reagents are non renewable polyclonal antibodiesProtein Innovation LabsPILwill couple its state of the art mammalian protein production capabilities with powerful yeast surface display technologiesand an expert advisory panelto generate anopen sourcesuite of monoclonal antibodies targeting cell surface molecules in two broad classesorthologues of major human T cell modulatory moleculeswhich are targets for immunotherapy andmarkers on immune cells that are integral contributors to the tumor microenvironmentand which are therefore critical for understanding and enhancing biologics based and cell based immunotherapiesThese reagents will enable both the tracking and functional modulation of a wide range of cell types involved in immune processesand will extend the use of zebrafish as an effective model for vertebrate biology and human disease