Hummingbird targets antibody discovery hurdle in fighting cancer

Singapore

ANTIBODIES is the buzzword in the race to cure cancer. Naturally produced by our immune systems, they can be used as drugs to bind to target proteins and invoke certain effects, such as destroying cancer cells.

But the industry bottleneck is that once researchers identify a good target protein, it is difficult to find the right antibodies to act against it.

Singapore-based Hummingbird Bioscience is zeroing in on this problem with its proprietary Rational Antibody Discovery (RAD) platform, which enables the startup to identify and "make very potent antibodies that other technologies have been unable to effectively hit", CEO Piers Ingram told The Business Times.

"It's like creating a smart bomb - smart in knowing where to hit and smart in the design of the bomb itself," added Chik Wai Chiew, CEO of Heritas Capital Management, which tracked Hummingbird for two years before back…