10075443Epitope mimics for precision immunosuppressionClosedGrant for R&DInnovate UKKairos Biotech Ltd aims to improve transplantation outcomes and transplant waiting times, for previously difficult to transplant patients. Many patients with end-stage organ failure have antibodies to potential donor organs which would cause transplant rejection. These patients wait a long time for a transplant, or may never receive a transplant. Current immunosuppression regimes tend to target the whole immune system which can leave patients vulnerable to deleterious side effects such as infection and cancer. Kairos Biotech are designing novel molecules 'EMs' that specifically target these 'anti-donor' antibodies, and the cells that produce these antibodies. These molecules are specific enough to leave anti-infection antibodies intact thus allowing transplants to proceed that would otherwise not be able to. Our current research focusses on molecules that can be used pre-transplant to either remove deleterious antibodies, or precisely target cells that make the antibodies. This approach is expected to be used post-transplant for continued specific immunosuppression. It is expected that these molecules will also revolutionise the way in which specific antibodies are detected and identified leading to improvements in diagnostics and understandings of antibody-mediated rejection. The first applications are expected to be in diagnostic tests that detect damaging antibodies in transplant, blood transfusion and rare autoimmune diseases. The same principle of using EMs to target anti-donor antibodies can be applied to the treatment of autoimmune diseases where antibodies in the patient's circulation may attack their own cells. In autoimmune conditions where antibodies attack cells in the patient's body or attack transplanted organs the EMs will enable specific suppression of those disease-causing antibodies without supressing the immune system and leaving the patient prone to infection.