Spotlight: How AlphaThera is Battling the Pandemic

AlphaThera has been even busier than usual these past months. The Pennovation Center company was recently awarded an NIH grant for $667,000 to evolve their existing antibody labeling reagents, to battle the pandemic.  Dr.  Andrew Tsourkas, AlphaThera’s Founder, is also a Professor of Bioengineering at Penn.  “In the startup environment, there is always a sense of urgency.  We all feel a need to work around the clock, which is awesome”. AlphaThera produces Antibody Labeling reagents for research use, and the COVID-19 pandemic offered the team another opportunity to show an immediate impact with their technology. 

The company’s technology originates from Dr. Tsourkas TITAN laboratory at Penn.  “Our site-specific antibody labeling technology, known as light-activated site-specific conjugation or LASIC, is documented in a variety of publications that outline the benefits of this proprietary antibody conjugation approach. We are working hard to determine if the platform can detect the virus itself, as well as antibodies against the virus, which is a perfect long-term strategy. This way, we are not limited to patients that were recently infected. We can also determine the likelihood of previous infections.” The research complements their work on the oYo-Link antibody-surface immobilization product line, an evolution of an existing product line. 

The team’s versatility and depth of experience enabled the company to adapt to the COVID-19 focus quickly. AlphaThera’s science team outlined the benefits of site-specific labeling for ELISA tests. The business team reinforced the value proposition by identifying the opportunity to commercialize its novel approach to the COVID-19 ELISA assay.  “Most traditional ways of labeling antibodies do not have any control over where the label resides. It can reside anywhere.  We can label antibodies very precisely, which allows for catching smaller loads of the virus and better detection of the virus.”   

AlphaThera recently expanded its lab footprint in the Pennovation Center from 2 to 6 lab benches to accommodate the additional work.  “With the connection to Penn and the close working relationships with faculty, we were able to put this together very quickly’, said Tsourkas. “Pennovation offered us ample room to set up additional equipment, which has become necessary to meet the increasing demand for our products and to scale production of our reagents. AlphaThera’s longer-term plans will involve client outreach, demos of our technology, and partnership development to ensure optimal application of our technology in the ELISA testing format. With our medium- and long-term goals established, we look forward to working with Penn and the Pennovation Center as we scale our operation.”