AstraZeneca is extending its work with Immunai through a multiyear collaboration that aims to implement its artificial-intelligence-powered immune cell atlas in the design of the drugmaker’s clinical trials of cancer immunotherapies.
The two companies previously partnered on research into targets within inflammatory bowel disease based on cell-by-cell analyses of the immune system.
Immunai had also lent its multi-omics tech to the development of AstraZeneca’s CTLA-4 and PD-L1 bispecific antibody volrustomig, currently being tested in phase 3 studies among cancers of the lung, cervix, head and neck.
Founded by former researchers and computer engineers from MIT, Harvard and Stanford University, New York-based Immunai has been building a digital map of the immune system by charting each cell type’s function and their interactions with the body and various diseases.
In late 2021, the startup collected a mammoth $215 million series B round after raising $60 million through a series A earlier that same year. Those funds have helped the company stretch its reach from immuno-oncology toward broader research into auto-immune, cardiovascular and neurological conditions both through its AMICA cell atlas and its AI model dubbed the Immunodynamics Engine, or IDE.
Through its re-upped pact with AstraZeneca, Immunai is slated to receive $18 million for the first phase of the new project.
The collaboration as a whole will focus on identifying which patients may be most likely to respond to different treatments based on profiles of their immune systems and the drug’s mechanism of action—while also spanning clinical decision-making, dose selection and biomarker identification, according to Immunai. The Big Pharma will then have an option to further expand the teams’ remit.
“This collaboration is a natural progression of our successful work in advancing drug development in the fields of oncology and immunology,” Immunai CEO Noam Solomon, Ph.D., said in a statement. “Bringing a drug to market is incredibly challenging, time consuming and expensive. Through this collaboration with AstraZeneca, we’re excited to leverage our AI-based engine, the IDE, to help make this process more efficient in bringing potential new therapies to patients.”