Mass High Tech - November 10, 2008

MSM Protein to make tool for cystic fibrosis antibody search
Mass High Tech

Medford-based MSM Protein Technologies Inc., operated by its four sole investors Davis Farmer, Tajib Mirzabekov, David Kreimer and Eldar Kim, has secured funding from the Maryland-based nonprofit Cystic Fibrosis Foundation Therapeutics Inc. to make a tool used to seek an antibody for cystic fibrosis.

MSM will generate cell lines that produce large amounts of a mutated form of a cystic fibrosis trans-membrane protein, which builds a chloride ion channel in epithelial cells, to generate displays that can be used to select human antibodies that could one day treat the disease, the companies said.

MSM did not disclose the financial terms of the funding deal.

Melissa Ashlock, vice president of drug discovery for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, a parent group, said the inherited disorder is caused by a defective gene (Cystic Fibrosis Trans-membrane or CFTR) and its protein that build a defective ion channel, contributing to the buildup of extracellular mucus.

Ashlock said antibodies have not before been used to treat cystic fibrosis. The project involves production of a tool to determine how antibodies interact with CFTR proteins. Whether it can improve the function of the ion channel, “we have no idea, we have not figured out if that is possible,” she said.

MSM Protein created a platform to test the efficacy of antibodies against certain types of targets, and it discovered six antibodies as drug candidates since starting in East Kingston, N.H., in 2005. Its antibodies have potential to treat heart disease, cancers, inflammation and Alzheimer’s disease.

MSM Protein is in existing partnerships with MedImmune LLC, a unit of U.K.-based AstraZeneca, and Switzerland-based ESBA Tech AG. In March, it completed screening of 100 billion proteins in MedImmune’s library to identify two antibodies that work as antagonists at specific protein receptors.