Philadelphia’s Biosciences Community Adds Two Companies

PHILADELPHIA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Philadelphia’s biosciences community is growing. Adaptimmune LLC and Optofluidics, Inc., have established offices at the University City Science Center’s Port Business Incubator. Adaptimmune Ltd., founded in 2008 in the United Kingdom, chose the Science Center as the location of its U.S. subsidiary, Adaptimmune LLC. Optofluidics, founded in 2010, is just beginning its operations.

“We believe these two companies will find the Science Center to be a supportive network of entrepreneurs.”

Adaptimmune is focused on the use of T cell therapy to treat cancer and infectious disease. The biotechnology company enhances the power of the T cell receptor, and uses these enhanced T cell receptors on a person’s own cells to enable recognition of infected or cancerous cells. Working closely with the translational research group at the University of Pennsylvania, Adaptimmune has established a pilot trial in HIV, and has three oncology trials to begin within the month in multiple myeloma, synovial sarcoma and melanoma.

“The University City Science Center has been catalytic for Adaptimmune LLC; enabling us to move very quickly to an operational company within a few short months. The biotechnology-savvy staff organized a very efficient relay of interactions with key legal and other support functions which, combined with the affordable plug-and-play offices and the close proximity to the University of Pennsylvania, were unique and important factors to us as we were choosing our Philadelphia location,” says James Noble, Adaptimmune’s CEO.

Adaptimmune LLC, is the newest participant in the Science Center’s Global Soft Landing program, which fosters international business in the U.S. by helping global companies establish a foothold in local life sciences and information technology markets. Along with the U.K., companies from Belgium, China, France, Germany, Singapore and Spain participate in the Global Soft Landing program.

Optofluidics focuses on developing microfluidic and biophotonic devices for point of care medical diagnostics, chemical agent detection, and biomedical instrumentation. The company’s intellectual property was developed at Cornell University and includes a number of technologies including single molecule analysis technologies, one of the world’s most sensitive biosensor platforms and microfluidic handling techniques.

“The Science Center grants Optofluidics the ability to enter the biotechnology sector in a very prominent location for this industry while still giving us the opportunity to grow in an environment that offers state-of-the-art facilities and services as well as helpful staff,” says Optofluidic’s Chief Technology Officer, Bernardo Cordovez.

“Anytime we can attract new life science companies to the region it’s a win. In this case, we’ve got a triple play: Optofluidics and Adaptimmune’s presence at the Science Center is a win for the Science Center, a win for the companies and a win for Greater Philadelphia’s life sciences community,” says Science Center President & CEO, Stephen S. Tang, Ph.D. “We believe these two companies will find the Science Center to be a supportive network of entrepreneurs.”

About Adaptimmune Limited

Adaptimmune Limited is focused on the use of T cell therapy to treat HIV and cancer. It aims to utilize the body’s own machinery – the T lymphocyte cell – to target and destroy cancerous or infected cells.

Established in July 2008, Adaptimmune was set up to develop Immunocore Ltd.’s (formerly Avidex/MediGene Ltd.’s) unique T cell receptor engineering technology for adoptive T cell therapy. Specifically, Adaptimmune makes use of the body’s ability to recognize infected or cancerous cells by enhancing the power of the T cell receptor (TCR) on killer T cells. Cancerous or virally infected cells will typically present small parts or peptides of larger viral proteins or abnormal cancer proteins on their surface, offering a "molecular fingerprint" called an epitope for killer T-cells from the immune system to identify. In a healthy individual, this triggers an immune response, eliminating the affected cell. However, viruses such as HIV mutate rapidly, swiftly disguising their fingerprints to allow them to hide from killer T-cells whilst cancer proteins are usually derived from self proteins against which natural TCRs do not respond. Adaptimmune’s technology uniquely enhances the natural TCR affinity to either viral or cancer protein epitopes on an individual patient’s cells overcoming these obstacles for therapeutic benefit.

Adaptimmune has undertaken significant preclinical development with a number of pipeline TCRs to demonstrate their potency and specificity in vitro. It is poised to gather clinical safety and efficacy data with regulatory approvals for human trials in HIV and cancer now in place. http://www.adaptimmune.com

About Optofluidics, Inc.

Optofluidics, Inc. is a start-up company founded in 2010 that focuses on developing microfluidic and biophotonic devices for: point of care medical diagnostics, chemical agent detection, and biomedical instrumentation. The foundation for the company is the intellectual property developed at Cornell University in Professor David Erickson’s laboratory, who along with Dr. Bernardo Cordovez, is a co-founder of the company. This IP spans technologies including: single molecule analysis technologies capable of handling the smallest materials (current NSF SBIR award recipient), one of the most sensitive optical biosensor platforms in existence, and numerous microfluidic handling techniques.

About the Science Center

The University City Science Center accelerates technology commercialization, regional economic development, and the market availability of life-enhancing scientific breakthroughs by bringing together innovations, scientists, entrepreneurs, funding, laboratory facilities, and business services. Established in 1963 and headquartered in Philadelphia, PA, the Science Center was the first, and remains the largest, urban research park in the United States. Graduate organizations and current residents of the University City Science Center’s Port business incubators have created more than 15,000 jobs that remain in the Greater Philadelphia region today and contribute more than $9 billion to the regional economy annually. For more information about the Science Center, go to www.sciencecenter.org.