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University of Oxford’s Kennedy Institute of Rheumatology Partners with Absci to Accelerate AI-Driven Immunotherapies

VANCOUVER, Wash. and OXFORD, UK, May 11, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Absci Corporation (Nasdaq: ABSI), a generative AI drug creation company, and the University of Oxford’s Kennedy Institute of Rheumatology, a biomedical research center developing new therapies for chronic inflammatory and musculoskeletal conditions, today announced a partnership to create breakthrough therapies for immune-mediated diseases.

It takes an average of ten years and costs more than $1 billion to bring a new drug to market. This partnership will leverage Absci’s Integrated Drug Creation™ platform, with its unique combination of generative AI and synthetic biology capabilities, and The Kennedy Institute’s leading clinical immunology datasets to identify antibodies to immune-mediated inflammatory diseases and autoimmune conditions with a higher probability of clinical success at unprecedented speeds.

Absci will use generative AI models with The Kennedy Institute’s genomics datasets to identify novel antibodies from patients with exceptional immune responses to inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), including Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis. Then, using its reverse immunology approach, Absci will computationally re-assemble antigen-antibody pairs as promising potential starting points for drug development.

“The Kennedy Institute’s vast, high-quality biorepository data expands Absci’s strategic R&D portfolio and aims to unlock major advances for a range of immune-mediated conditions that millions suffer from,” said Sean McClain, Founder and CEO of Absci. “Together with our established data partnerships with St. John’s Cancer Institute and Aster Insights, this partnership gives Absci a robust data pipeline that enables our AI platform across a wide range of therapeutic areas as we build our internal therapeutic pipeline.”

“Absci’s reverse immunology approach promises to turn clinical data into pharmaceutical drugs,” said Christopher Buckley, Director of Clinical Research at The Kennedy Institute. “We are excited about the potential for generative AI to accelerate the discovery of promising drug candidates and better understand their potential efficacy and safety profiles. This partnership will help accelerate our findings in the clinic into new immunotherapies for patients.”

The Kennedy Institute is a pioneer in autoimmunity and one of the first to show how suppressing tumor necrosis factor (TNF) could reduce harmful inflammatory processes in various diseases. Today, some best-selling drugs (e.g., adalimumab) are based on this innovative therapeutic approach. Absci and The Kennedy Institute will work together to accelerate the discovery and development of other promising drug targets and therapies.

About Absci
Absci is a generative AI drug creation company that combines AI with scalable wet lab technologies to create better biologics for patients, faster. Our Integrated Drug Creation™ platform unlocks the potential to accelerate time to clinic and increase the probability of success by simultaneously optimizing multiple drug characteristics important to both development and therapeutic benefit. With the data to train, the AI to create, and the wet lab to validate, Absci can screen billions of cells per week, allowing it to go from AI-designed antibodies to wet lab-validated candidates in as little as six weeks. Absci’s vision is to deliver breakthrough therapeutics at the click of a button, for everyone. Absci's headquarters is in Vancouver, WA, its AI Research Lab is in New York City, and its Innovation Center is in Zug, Switzerland. Visit www.absci.com and follow us on LinkedIn (@absci), Twitter (@Abscibio), and YouTube.

About The Kennedy Institute of Rheumatology

The Kennedy Institute of Rheumatology is a biomedical research center focused in the areas of rheumatology, inflammation, immunology and tissue biology. The Institute is part of the Nuffield Department of Orthopaedics, Rheumatology and Musculoskeletal Sciences (NDORMS), a multi-disciplinary department focusing on discovering the causes of musculoskeletal and inflammatory conditions to deliver excellent and innovative care that improves people’s quality of life.

Research at the Institute is supported by a suite of platforms, as well as through strategic partnerships with other basic and clinical research centers within the University of Oxford and Oxford University Hospitals, across the UK and internationally. Scientific platforms provide access to state-of-the-art technologies including the Oxford-Zeiss Centre for Excellence and other advanced microscopy and imaging facilities, mass and flow cytometry, as well as capabilities for microbial genomics and functional microbiome studies made available through the Oxford Centre for Microbiome Studies.

Availability of Other Information about Absci

Investors and others should note that we routinely communicate with investors and the public using our website (www.absci.com) and our investor relations website (investors.absci.com), including without limitation, through the posting of investor presentations, SEC filings, press releases, public conference calls and webcasts on these websites, as well as on Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube. The information that we post on these websites and social media outlets could be deemed to be material information. As a result, investors, the media, and others interested in Absci are encouraged to review this information on a regular basis. The contents of our website and social media postings, or any other website that may be accessed from our website or social media postings, shall not be deemed incorporated by reference in any filing under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended.

Absci Forward-Looking Statements

Certain statements in this press release that are not historical facts are considered forward-looking within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, including statements containing the words “will,” “may,” “pursues,” “anticipates,” “plans,” “believes,” “aims,” “potential,” “forecast,” “estimates,” “extends,” “expects,” and “intends,” or similar expressions. We intend these forward-looking statements, including statements regarding technology development efforts and the application of those efforts, including acceleration of drug development timelines, reducing the time and costs related to drug development, advancements toward in silico drug design, drug discovery and development activities, internal pipeline development efforts, and the effective incorporation of our technology in drug design, research and technology development collaboration efforts, to be covered by the safe harbor provisions for forward-looking statements contained in Section 27A of the Securities Act and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act, and we make this statement for purposes of complying with those safe harbor provisions. These forward-looking statements reflect our current views about our plans, intentions, expectations, strategies, and prospects, which are based on the information currently available to us and on assumptions we have made. We can give no assurance that the plans, intentions, expectations, or strategies will be attained or achieved, and furthermore, actual results may differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements and will be affected by a variety of risks and factors that are beyond our control, including, without limitation, risks and uncertainties relating to our ability to effectively collaborate on research, drug discovery and development activities with our partners or potential partners; along with those risks set forth in our most recent periodic report filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, as well as discussions of potential risks, uncertainties, and other important factors in our subsequent filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Except as required by law, we assume no obligation to update publicly any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise.

Investor Contact
investors@absci.com

Media Contact
press@absci.com


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