AbCellera Biologics

AbCellera is a privately held company in Vancouver, Canada focused on antibody discovery for therapeutics and immune profiling for vaccine research. AbCellera partners with researchers in academia, non-profit organizations and industry to help accelerate the development of new antibody therapies and new vaccines.

The company has a single-cell platform that integrates proprietary immunizations, microfluidics, high-throughput imaging, genomics, computation and laboratory automation. Single B cells are screened for natural immune responses and the production of antibodies from any species.

Celium is AbCellera’s proprietary antibody visualization software. Celium is a data mining and visualization tool that combines computation with genomics and high-throughput microfluidics and is able to test millions of antibody variants in a single day. Millions of individual immune cells each make a unique antibody molecule and the AbCellera team collects data about the initial target antigen, the immune response to that antigen and the binding properties, antibody sequences and their relatedness to others. Other biophysical characteristics related to the potential to manufacture the antibody as an effective drug, such as expression level and stability, are also analysed. Celium makes the large amount of data easier for humans to explore and find patterns. Celium provides a user interface where antibodies with similar DNA sequences or similar biological functions are linked in a visual space.

Abcellera works under the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Pandemic Prevention Platform (P3) program to develop a technology platform capable of developing field-ready medical countermeasures within 60 days after a viral pathogen is isolated. Abcellera is working on an antibody-based method to neutralize and block transmission of SARS-CoV-2 (2019-nCoV), the new coronavirus responsible for the outbreak declared a global emergency by the World Health Organization (WHO). The coronavirus strain has more recently been renamed SARS-CoV-2 with the disease called COVID-19 (coronavirus disease). The company’s approach is to deliver a nucleic acid vector that will be translated into the antibody protein within the patient. AbCellera and Eli Lilly entered into an agreement to co-develop antibody products for the treatment and prevention of COVID-19 on March 12, 2020.

On September 27, 2013 AbCellera Biologics announced receiving a grant worth an undisclosed amount of money from an undisclosed source.

On August 9, 2014 AbCelllera Biologics announced raising an undisclosed round of seed funding from undisclosed investors.

On April 4, 2017 AbCellera Biologics announced raising $817, 900 in funding from undisclosed investors.

On September 27, 2018 AbCellera Biologics announced raising $10 million in series A funding from Data Collective DCVC. The company plans on using their series A funding to accelerate the development of their therapeutic antibody discovery business and to improve its technological capabilities for computation, protein engineering, and immune repertoire profiling. At the time of announcing their series A funding AbCellera Biologics also announced Doug Janzen stepping down from his position as the company's Chairman of the Board.

On March 14, 2019 AbCellera announced receiving a grant worth $4.8 million from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.