AbCellera has entered into a collaborative research effort with Sanofi Pasteur, a global leader in the development and sale of vaccines for seasonal influenza. The project will use AbCellera’s single-cell screening platform to profile vaccine-specific human antibodies elicited by seasonal influenza vaccination and to generate large panels of human monoclonal antibodies with desired binding profiles to various influenza strains.

Carl Hansen, chief executive officer of AbCellera, commented, “AbCellera’s platform is a powerful approach for human immune profiling and antibody discovery. We are excited to be working with the Sanofi Pasteur team to help advance vaccine research.”

Seasonal influenza affects millions of people every year, and results in 250,000 to 500,000 deaths annually, according to the World Health Organization. Although vaccination provides protection when matched to the circulating strains, there is a place for new and improved vaccines when the circulating viruses do not match. Understanding the critical determinants that drive broad and protective human immune responses will guide the research and development of next-generation influenza vaccines.

AbCellera’s microfluidic platform combines screening speed and throughput with unique capabilities for selecting antibodies with defined properties using a wide array of single-cell assays. This platform allows for in-depth screening of immune cells from human blood samples and the rapid discovery and sequencing of large numbers of human monoclonal antibodies with desired binding properties across multiple antigens. The ability to rapidly annotate antibody sequences with functional data opens a new and important tool for vaccine research.