Infinimmune

Infinimmune is a biotechnology company focused on antibody drug discovery and development, taking a novel approach by sourcing therapeutics exclusively from the human immune system. The company was established in 2022 by a multidisciplinary team: Wyatt McDonnell, Katie Pfeiffer, Mike Gibbons, Lance Hepler, and David Jaffe. The founding team possesses extensive experience in immunology, single-cell methods, protein engineering, computational biology, and genome assembly from their previous leadership roles at prominent institutions like 10x Genomics, Pacific Biosciences, and the Broad Institute. CEO Wyatt McDonnell, an immunologist and inventor, was motivated to start the company after his work at 10x Genomics, where he developed therapeutic antibodies and core immunology intellectual property. In December 2022, Infinimmune secured $12 million in a seed funding round led by Playground Global, with participation from Pear VC, Civilization Ventures, and Axial VC, to expand its R&D capabilities and scale operations.

The company's core business revolves around its end-to-end platform designed to identify, characterize, and develop antibody drugs derived directly from human B cells. This method bypasses traditional discovery techniques that rely on model organisms or synthetic libraries. The central premise is that antibodies evolved within a human are inherently optimized for safety and efficacy in patients, being less likely to provoke an immune reaction. Infinimmune's proprietary Anthrobody™ discovery platform, powered by its Complete Human™ immunosequencing technology, enables the screening of human samples to find complete antibodies, encompassing both the binding and effector regions. Recently, the company launched GLIMPSE-1, a protein language model trained exclusively on native human antibody sequences to aid in therapeutic engineering and optimization. Infinimmune's business model is dual-pronged: it builds its own pipeline of drug candidates, initially focusing on autoimmune diseases like atopic dermatitis, ulcerative colitis, and cancer, while also partnering with pharmaceutical companies to advance their antibody programs. A notable partnership includes a collaboration with Grid Therapeutics to discover new antibody candidates for non-small cell lung cancer.

Keywords: antibody drug discovery, human-derived antibodies, immunosequencing, biopharmaceuticals, Anthrobody platform, Complete Human technology, GLIMPSE-1, protein language model, immunology, B cells, autoimmune disease therapeutics, cancer immunotherapy, therapeutic engineering, preclinical biotechnology, single-cell analysis, drug development platform, human-first biologics, therapeutic antibody development, monoclonal antibodies, biopharma partnerships