Affomix Corporation, a pioneer in high performance antibody technology, announced a collaboration with City of Hope focused on establishing the clinical utility of “digital proteomics” with next generation sequencers. One of the nation’s top cancer research and treatment centres, City of Hope is a leading provider of molecular diagnostic testing services and an innovator in clinical genetics research.

In the collaboration, Affomix will use its high-throughput, automated antibody selection technology to provide City of Hope with recombinant antibodies that are designed to be readily tagged with oligonucleotide “zipcodes,” making them compatible with next generation sequencers. “City of Hope will aim to use these recombinant antibodies to generate proteomic profiles characteristic of a number of cancers such as renal and prostate,” said Huiqing Wu, M.D, associate professor and staff pathologist, City of Hope. “We are looking forward to exploring next generation sequencing and the Affomix technology in diagnostics. Digital proteomics is the next frontier in personalized medicine,” said Jakub Sram, PhD, MBA, Director of Business Development for City of Hope’s Molecular Diagnostic Laboratory.

Affomix has built and automated the tools to rapidly generate antibodies against native, as well as post-translationally modified, proteins. “These specialized antibodies, which are designed to enable sensitive detection and accurate quantitation, are ideal for use in several existing platforms, including next generation sequencers,” stated John Boyce, Head of Business Development for Affomix and Co-Founder of Delphi Bio, LLC. “Collaborations with leading institutes such as City of Hope will enable us to expand our reach into the clinical diagnostics and personalized medicine markets. This is a transformative milestone in the merging of proteomics and genomics.”

“We are pleased to be working with an innovative partner such as City of Hope. The institution’s ability to couple research programs with diagnostic test development is well documented. This collaboration will expand our efforts to extend the logical progression from nucleic acid-based to protein-based diagnostic analysis”, stated Michael Sherman, president of Affomix.

Affomix is an emerging leader in the antibody technology space, with high throughput methodologies to select, at an unprecedented rate, antibodies against unmodified as well as post-translationally modified proteins.