Abzena has entered into a master service agreement with one of America’s leading academic medical centers, NYU Langone Health. The agreement, for protein engineering and drug discovery services, will help NYU Langone’s drug discovery accelerator, the Office of Therapeutics Alliances (OTA), to develop novel biopharmaceutical therapeutics.

The first project under this master agreement centers around the development of a novel biopharmaceutical being developed by NYU OTA for the treatment of severe autoimmune disease. Abzena will provide integrated development support from its bioassay, immunology and protein engineering groups.

“It’s fantastic that our expertise and integrated offering across our biology group is being used in the development of another promising treatment,” said Dr. Campbell Bunce, senior vice president, scientific operations, Abzena. “This agreement represents another example of Abzena supporting exciting drug candidates from academic groups, utilizing not just our services but also our significant biologics know-how.”

Dr. Nadim Shohdy, assistant dean and director, therapeutics alliances, NYU Langone, said, “We are very excited to execute both the master agreement, and to launch this inaugural project with Abzena. This partnership will augment NYU Langone’s access to deep biologics capabilities and expertise to further enhance OTA’s mission to translate the research of our faculty into therapeutic products that help patients.”