Characterizing the Immunome at Scale

Episode Summary

Executive Summary: The episode centers on Immunoscape’s immune-profiling platform and its application in oncology, infectious disease, and precision medicine. Brian Abel explains how the company analyzes T-cell and broader immune responses at high dimensionality, uses partnerships to validate biomarkers, and is expanding from a service model toward drug discovery and proprietary assets, backed by a recent $40 million financing.

Main Topics: Immunoscape’s immune profiling platform (Priority: 5/5): The company’s technology deeply characterizes immune responses, especially CD8 T cells, while also extending to B cells, dendritic cells, NK cells, and monocytes. It profiles antigens and protein markers at high granularity to understand immune function and phenotype. Clinical utility in cancer immunotherapy (Priority: 5/5): The platform is positioned as a tool to compare responders and non-responders in trials, identify biomarkers, guide patient stratification, and support development of better combination or targeted immunotherapies. Precision medicine and personalized immune responses (Priority: 4/5): Abel emphasizes using immune profiling before and after treatment to understand individualized anti-tumor responses, especially in checkpoint blockade, and to detect baseline markers that could predict outcomes. Partnership strategy and business model evolution (Priority: 4/5): Immunoscape is shifting from a service-based startup model toward deeper partnerships that involve data sharing, IP, and project upside, leveraging collaborations with pharma and academia for credibility and publications. COVID-19 and variant research with Johns Hopkins and NIAID (Priority: 5/5): The transcript details studies showing CD8 T-cell responses in recovered patients against SARS-CoV-2, including recognition of conserved epitopes across variants and support for multivalent vaccine design. Financing and future expansion (Priority: 4/5): A newly raised $40 million round is intended to grow the team, accelerate technology development, and expand into drug discovery, including identification of novel targets and T-cell receptors.

Key Arguments: Deep immune profiling is valuable because T-cell responses vary widely at the single-cell level in magnitude, quality, and phenotype. A platform that analyzes both targeted antigens and broad immune markers can reveal clinically relevant biomarkers of response. Validated biomarkers can improve patient stratification and help deliver the right immunotherapy to the right patients. The technology can identify differences between responders and non-responders, enabling new therapeutic targets or combination strategies. Natural SARS-CoV-2 infection induces multivalent T-cell responses beyond spike, suggesting broader vaccine designs may offer better protection against variants. Conserved T-cell epitopes across variants are promising for durable immunity, though the study size was limited. The company is moving beyond services toward co-development partnerships and eventually its own drug-discovery assets. The $40 million financing will mainly support hiring and technology innovation, with oncology as the dominant focus area.

Data Points: Protein markers per sample: Approximately 46 - High-dimensional profiling of cells in one shot Antigens screened: Hundreds - Screening what T cells recognize alongside protein markers Additional immune markers: About 30–35 - Markers used in conjunction with antigen screening Ultrascape channels: Up to 120 channels in a single sample - Proprietary in-house assay for broader immune landscape analysis SARS-CoV-2 candidate antigens: 408 - Predicted across six HLA alleles for the Johns Hopkins/NIAID COVID study HLA alleles analyzed: 6 - COVID-19 T-cell epitope prediction study Donors in first COVID study: 30 - Recovered COVID-19 donors whose T-cell responses were measured Unique hits detected: 52 - SARS-CoV-2 T-cell responses identified in recovered donors Previously unreported responses: 18 - Novel T-cell responses found in the COVID study Funding raised: $40 million - Recent venture financing announced around the time of the interview Work focused on oncology: About three quarters - Abel says most of the company’s work is in oncology and cancer immunotherapy

Pivotal Quotes: "we can really customize and design our panels so we can focus on other cells of the immune system to include things like B cells, dendritic cells, natural killer cells, monocytes and whatever is required" — Brian Abel: Explaining the breadth and flexibility of Immunoscape’s platform "a next generation multivalent vaccine targeting several proteins may offer better protection in general and also against variants because you're targeting many more different regions beyond spike" — Brian Abel: Discussing implications of the COVID-19 variant study for vaccine design "the ultimate aim would be, you know, instead of supporting drug development companies like we're doing at the moment, discovering new assets" — Brian Abel: Describing the company’s long-term strategic shift after new financing

Implications: Immunoscape is positioning itself as a high-resolution immune analytics company with broad pharma utility. Its data could improve biomarker-driven trials, better vaccines, and future drug discovery, especially in oncology and emerging infectious diseases.