Atreca, Inc., a San Carlos, California-based biopharmaceutical company, has received a $6m investment from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Founded in 2010 by Tito A. Serafini, Ph.D., CEO, CSO, and co-founder, Atreca has developed Immune Repertoire CaptureTM technology that leverages next-generation sequencing to identify the set of functional antibodies produced in patients during an immune response. These antibodies both have utility themselves and can be employed to identify the targets of an immune response. Applied to human disease, the technology is an engine for the discovery and development of antibody-based therapeutics, vaccines, diagnostics, and research reagents.
The company recently licensed exclusive rights to it for all fields of use from Stanford University.
Atreca intends to use these proceeds to apply its technology in a particular set of infectious diseases and other conditions. The company will share with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation the results for use in the discovery and development of vaccines, therapeutics, and diagnostics to be deployed in a defined group of countries.
In the first four years, the partnership will focus on at least three diseases identified: malaria, HIV/AIDS, and tuberculosis.
FinSMEs
25/09/2012