VIENNA, Austria, March 12 /PRNewswire/ -- f-star, an antibody engineering company developing novel antibodies and antibody fragments based on its unique Modular Antibody Technology, announced today that it will open a research facility in Cambridge, UK in addition to its headquarters in Vienna, Austria. The facility will be located at the Babraham Research Campus, home to a number of biotech companies and close to the Medical Research Council's Laboratory of Molecular Biology (LMB), the major center for antibody engineering in Europe.
The research site will start operations on April 15, 2008. The group located in Cambridge will mainly be responsible for lead generation based on the company's Modular Antibody Technology as well as, in the future, for research related to the conduct of collaborative studies between f-star and its pharma and biotech partners.
f-star's Cambridge site will start with a small group of highly experienced researchers in the field. The research group will be headed by Lutz Riechmann, a senior researcher with over 20 years of experience in antibody research in Sir Gregory Winter's group at the LMB.
"We are excited to open up a lab at the epicenter of Europe's antibody research and development community and to utilize the large pool of talent and experience concentrated in the Cambridge area," says Gottfried Himmler, CEO.
About f-star
f-star is an antibody engineering company based in Vienna, Austria. The company develops improved therapeutic antibodies and antibody fragments based on its Modular Antibody Technology, which allows the introduction of additional binding sites into antibodies and antibody fragments by engineering the non-CDR loops of constant or variable domains. Using Modular Antibody Technology, antibody fragments with antibody functionality and long half-life but much smaller size (Fcab(TM)) or full antibodies with additional functionality (mAb2) can be created.
f-star was founded by a team of experienced antibody engineering and biotech executives in 2006. Seed-financed by Austrian government agencies and Atlas Venture, the company recently closed a Series A financing round with Aescap Venture, Atlas Venture and Novo A/S and has raised EUR 13.0m in total so far. In its advisory board, the company is supported by pioneers in the field of monoclonal antibodies. f-star has 18 employees at its headquarters in Vienna, Austria and recently opened a second research site in Cambridge, UK.
SOURCE f-star
