Antibody expertise and bespoke reagents elevate life sciences research

The growth of biologics and cell and gene therapies has allowed enormous improvements to the lives of people with serious and chronic disorders, from early diagnosis of diseases such as cancer to the treatment of life-threatening and life-limiting conditions. For the researchers developing breakthrough therapeutics and diagnostics solutions, this requires access to reliable high-quality life science reagents such as sera, media, buffers, and reagents, as well as to customizable recombinant antibodies, antibody fragments, and bispecifics.

Off-the-shelf reagents are often the simplest approach, but sophisticated projects need something more tailored. Big media manufacturers have the equipment, the facilities, and the expertise for manufacturing large volume batches, but companies like Life Science Group offer flexibility and prioritize customer service.

Benefits of an agile life sciences partner

“We are the agile partner enabling innovative researchers and biotech companies to further their science.”

“We are a trusted UK-based liquid CDMO, operating two grade C cleanrooms to strict quality and traceability standards. We back this up with ISO13485 and ISO9001 accreditations, so we are really well positioned to support customers in the UK, Europe, and beyond,” says Chris Green, Commercial Director at Life Science Group. “Our customer base spans academic and private research groups, biotech, and pharma with a focus on cell culture and molecular biology. Our customer base is ever-evolving in the diagnostics and cell and gene therapy space.”

The biotech industry is highly innovative, but this means it requires a variety of biologically relevant processes and workflow strategies to obtain the desired outcome. This benefits from the expert support of suppliers providing bespoke media, buffers, and broader reagents.

“As an agile partner, we will support with everything from early-stage validation runs all the way through to process scale-up – that could be anything from 1 to 1,000 L batches,” says Green. “We are not afraid to get our hands dirty supporting early-research, and we can scale with our customers from bench top studies to their translation into clinical trials.”

Scientific collaboration for continual improvement

“Absolute Antibody also has a culture of exploration and is always pushing for better.”

Life Science Group started life as Antibody Production Services and continue to offer this as part of its portfolio of solutions, partnering with Absolute Antibody for specific project requirements.

“Absolute Antibody is a trusted subcontracting partner for the times we need something that little bit more specific, or additional support on a particular project,” explains Green. “This partnership has provided us with a unique opportunity to cater for a broader sub-set of the UK life science ecosystem.”

The goal of Absolute Antibody is to make engineered antibodies accessible to all researchers and biotech and diagnostics companies. Specializing in antibody sequencing, engineering and recombinant expression, Absolute Antibody offers royalty-free custom services and a unique reagents catalogue of engineered recombinant antibodies and Fc fusion proteins.

“Absolute Antibody also has a culture of exploration and is always pushing for better,” Green continues. “Their team’s attitude towards continuous improvement ties in well with our company values.”

For example, Absolute Antibody’s proprietary cloning system allows rapid reformatting of antibodies into almost any format, including chimerization, humanization, isotype switching, protein engineering, and the manufacturing of recombinant antibody fragments and bispecific antibodies. For therapeutic antibodies derived from non-human sources, antibody humanization reduces the risk of immunogenicity. Absolute Antibody’s antibody humanization service, Prometheus, provides a panel of humanized variants based on a clone, with a guarantee that the package includes a variant with comparable activity to the parent antibody. The process to develop the variants also focuses on antibody manufacturability.

Future-proofed collaboration built on trust

“I'm always looking to build something that's going to be long lasting, and that requires great people connection.”

“Life sciences is a big part of the UK’s innovation agenda. While Absolute Antibody is now a global business, it has its roots in the northeast of England, and it’s great to work with other successful UK-based businesses within that ecosystem,” shares Green.

Most biotech and pharma companies, particularly smaller startup companies, need partners or service providers to meet additional needs. Building relationships is an important first step, particularly for long-term partnerships.

“I always start with people. When I enter a partnership, I'm looking to build something that's going to be future-proofed and long lasting, and that requires people connection,” explains Green. “Of course, you do your due diligence – you look at whether they have the capabilities to support your project – but you also need to go beyond that. You need to know whether it’s a business you want to work with for a long period of time. That’s the foundation for everything else that comes thereafter.”

A bright future for life sciences research

“Science never sits still, and that's why I love it, and why I'm still in the field.”

Green believes that the industry has been through one of its toughest cycles in a while, with the aftermath of COVID and changes in the political landscape, but adds that things are changing for the better:

“We are starting to see some stability and optimism building within the market again. It feels like it has real substance this time, it’s not just sentiment. We've seen research programs being resurrected that had been put on the back burner, and there is some amazing science coming through, from biotechs, universities, research institutes, CDMOs and CROs. The constant evolution of science means that our clients' needs are ever changing, and it’s always tough to keep pace with ever evolving sentiment towards various therapeutic modalities. A lot of my job is about listening to the market, understanding our customers' needs, making sure that we as a business are solving their pain points, and delivering great service on top.”

Green has a real excitement for the future: “At the time, it feels like science moves slowly, but if you look back at what has happened in the last 10 or 20 years, the pace of change in healthcare has been phenomenal. Science never sits still, and that's why I love it, and why I'm in the field. Oncology rightly takes a lot of the headlines, you see these patients surviving cancer that a decade ago might have been terminal."