Edmund Neo: Epitope identification and clinical immune monitoring tools

Epitope discovery and immune monitoring is a crucial element in the development of vaccine candidates and drug therapeutics. ProImmune provides industry-leading tools for antigen characterization, epitope mapping and immune monitoring. Novel epitopes can be identified by the highly sensitive ProPresent® Antigen Presentation assay, which utilizes LCMS/MS to determine peptides that are naturally processed and presented. Additionally, the REVEAL® HLA-peptide binding assay eliminates the need for precious patient samples and allows for the screening of multiple proteins for potential T cell epitopes in a matter of weeks. Once the epitopes have been identified, they act as important markers for tracking treatment effectiveness in clinical immune monitoring programs. IFN-γ ELISpots serve as a robust measurement of antigen specific immune responses following patient vaccination and/or treatment, while antigen-specific CD4+ T and CD8+ T cell responses can be enumerated by the ProT2® MHC-Tetramers and Pro5®MHC-Pentamers, respectively. I will be sharing case studies about the success of the HCV Vaccine Trials at Oxford University that has deployed our Pro5®MHC-Pentamers and how ProImmune’s integrated platform that has identified novel epitopes in the immune-oncology and gene therapy field that enabled the detection and measurement of functional T cell responses against those epitopes in the clinic.