Integral Molecular Expands Partnership with Japan's Life Sciences Distributor Funakoshi to Provide Access to Antibody Specificity and Epitope Mapping Services

PHILADELPHIA, June 8, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Integral Molecular has expanded its partnership with Funakoshi, a leader in distributing life science research reagents and services, to be the exclusive provider of Integral Molecular's therapeutic antibody characterization technologies in Japan. The partnership will provide researchers with access to antibody characterization technologies optimized to deliver IND-ready results in as little as 4 weeks, including off-target specificity profiling using the Membrane Proteome Array and high-resolution epitope mapping using Shotgun Mutagenesis.

Detailed specificity and epitope analysis are critical for therapeutic antibody success and intellectual property protection. Integral Molecular's antibody characterization platforms are designed to succeed even with structurally complex targets such as membrane proteins, have been used by over 400 companies, and are published in over 300 peer-reviewed publications.

"We have a long-standing partnership with Integral Molecular, having distributed their Lipoparticle products for more than 8 years," said Tetsuya Ikeda, President and CEO of Funakoshi. "We are pleased to extend our offerings to include Integral Molecular's unique antibody characterization services." 

Off-target antibody binding can result in severe adverse events, especially when antibodies are used to direct cell killing, as with CAR-T therapeutics. The Membrane Proteome Array (MPA) was developed by Integral Molecular to detect binding of antibodies, cells, and other biologics to 6,000 native proteins, comprising 94% of the human membrane proteome.

Epitope data support antibody patents by demonstrating antibody novelty, differentiating from prior art, and supporting written description requirements. Integral Molecular's Epitope Mapping platform provides mapping at single amino acid resolution using comprehensive mutagenesis and is >95% successful even when working with complex targets and conformational epitopes.  

About Integral Molecular

Integral Molecular (www.integralmolecular.com) is the industry leader in discovering and characterizing therapeutic antibodies against membrane proteins, an important group of drug targets found on the surfaces of cells and viruses. Integral Molecular's technologies have been integrated into the drug discovery pipelines of over 400 biotech and pharmaceutical companies to help discover new therapies for cancer, diabetes, autoimmune disorders and viral threats such as SARS-CoV-2, Ebola, Zika, and dengue viruses.

About Funakoshi

Funakoshi Co., Ltd. (www.funakoshi.co.jp) is the leader in distributing reagents and instruments for researchers in the life science fields. Their corporate mission is to provide high quality products to a broad range of customers throughout their domestic and international network.

Press Contact:
Integral Molecular, Inc.
Soma Banik, PhD, Director of Communications  
215-966-6061
[email protected]
www.integralmolecular.com

SOURCE Integral Molecular