Richmond’s biotech community is getting a boost this month with the addition of a business that specializes in immune system functions.
Amro Albanna of Aditxt Therapeutics Inc. (Photo courtesy Aditxt)
Aditx Therapeutics Inc. was expected to begin operations with an initial employment of 30 to 35 people, the beginning of a planned $31.5 million investment in its Richmond operations over three years that should create more than 300 jobs. It is establishing an immune monitoring center in a 25,000-square-foot portion of Bio Tech 8, part of the Virginia Bio+Tech Park campus of Activation Capital. The business will use the Richmond site for an AditxtScore facility that will also include some research and development and administrative functions, according to Amro Albanna, CEO and a founder of the business.
The AditxtScore measures multiple immune system parameters and provides a personalized immune system profile. The company seeks to better understand the immune system and develop ways to make it healthier. In so doing, they want to help each patient understand their health, determine root causes of illness and develop optimal treatments. The score platform is “all about immune intelligence and being able to provide meaningful information about our immunity status,” Albanna says.
The initial application involves COVID-19, and the AditxtScore will be used to detect antibodies and also neutralizing antibodies against antigens of SARS-CoV-2. This will provide information not just on infection, but the immunity status of the person as well, Albanna says. That will also provide a way to gauge the effectiveness of a particular vaccine over time. “COVID obviously is a tragedy,” he says. “It has forced us all to take different approaches to our immune systems. I believe right now we acutely appreciate the role the immune system plays in our health, our daily lives.”
The company has data tracking COVID-19 immune responses but is not ready to release reports.
The Richmond connection that served as the impetus to bring the business to the community was formed with a collaboration last year with Salveo Diagnostics Inc. of Richmond.
The local center will process samples from across the nation. It will amp up processing AditxtScore processing capacity, with a goal of up to 10 million reports each year within three years, according to a release.
The company was founded in 2017 and went public in June 2020. “We founded Aditxt with the mission to develop new technologies that fundamentally take a different approach to improving the health of our immune system,” Albanna says. The goal is to “prolong life and enhance its quality,” according to the company mission statement.
The company is seeking to develop a new class of therapeutics to train the immune system to accept certain tissues and cells, a way to eventually ward off organ rejection in transplants. Its work could have a wide range of applications, such as helping people with autoimmune disorders such as psoriasis or allergies or early detection of juvenile-onset diabetes. Immune system health can be improved through reprogramming the system and monitoring, according to Aditxt. It will seek to reprogram the immune system with what it calls its Apoptotic DNA Immunotherapy, which will be subject to clinical trials that are projected to begin by year’s end.
The workforce initiative effort Virginia Talent Accelerator Program will help with recruitment and training for the project.
CAPSULES
Health and medicine news in brief
- Some COVID-19 long-haulers may find help at a new clinic providing comprehensive care for those with chronic symptoms of the novel coronavirus. The VCU Health clinic will be held at its Stony Point Campus. It will be open by referral only at first and is offering treatment to current VCU Health patients who tested positive for the virus and have had symptoms that persisted for more than 12 weeks after diagnosis, according to a release. Plans call for expanding the service to patients referred by other providers as space permits.
- They’re going to run like it’s 2019 for the 44th edition of the VCU Health Richmond Marathon. The race will be held downtown, in person and on one day, Saturday, Nov. 13, according to organizers Sports Backers. Pandemic precautions led to modifying last year’s marathon, which was held over several days on a course in Henrico County with a start and finish in Dorey Park. The nonprofit’s marathon training team is also back to active, in-person work. It will hold group training runs on Saturdays and Sundays.
