IMUNX

Initiative at a glance

Core office in Palo Alto, California, USA and is developing post-transplantation monitoring technology based on unique Artificial Intelligence capabilities. A total of 1992 (Germany), 25539 (Europe) and 109315 (Global) Kidney transplantation have been performed in 2021. 

Finding the best "match" for an organ to be transplanted from donor to recipient is based on three criteria:

• Matching blood type

• Matching tissue (human leukocyte antigen - HLA)

• Cross-matching

Only if those criteria are matching, the organ can be transplanted but even then, there must be a post transplantation monitoring due to a possible sudden rejection of the organ.

Transplanted organs still experience injury caused by immune and non-immune related factors that include rejection due to infiltrating immune cells or antibodies against donor specific epitopes in the transplanted organ, viral infection, and drug toxicity due to the long-term use of immuno-suppressive drugs. Current diagnostic approaches lack the necessary sensitivity and selectivity required to accurately identify these events early enough so that the damage to the transplanted organ or "graft" can be avoided. Most organ injuries are caused by immune and non-immune related factors and could be avoided by the timely detection of such events in their early stage.

At the root of everything, we have the immune system that is an astonishing diagnostic system, continuously adapting itself to detect any signal of disease or change in the human body. Essentially, the state of the immune system tells a story about virtually everything affecting a person's health. Just like with a foreign language, currently we are unable to understand the story the immune system is telling us.

Several key players are involved, having a different language to understand, such as B- and T-cells via their receptors, antigen presenting cells via the human leukocyte antigen and the micro-biome itself with its massive population of microorganisms. Scientists all over the world are becoming experts in translating either only one or maybe two of these languages in context of a disease but there is no one understanding all three at once. Furthermore, there is no one understanding the dialect the key players are using to communicate with each other.

Our Imunx initiative provides the technology, expertise, and practical knowledge to create a translational platform for all of them, to finally understand what the entire immune system is trying to tell us. With this understanding we will be able to predict onset of organ rejection, onset of diseases and identify possible pharmaceutical targets.

Imunx is a combination of technology, experience and practical knowledge that creates a “translator platform” that allows one to understand how and what the immune system is trying to “communicate” about a problem. Thanks to this, it is possible to predict future organ rejection, the onset of disease and identify possible pharmaceutical targets. The project is based on laboratory resources and unique in-house immune repertoires and HLAs, enhanced by artificial intelligence from Bio-Tech Ventures platform. This allows the potential immune conflict between the transplanted organ and its recipient to be analyzed based on cell-free RNA NGS-tests. Consequently, both the patient and the organ can be saved, thereby reducing postoperative recovery costs and significantly reducing mortality.