Receptor Logic Ltd. said it will partner with Sanofi Pasteur Inc., the vaccines division of Sanofi-Aventis Group, to develop T-Cell Receptor Mimics (TCRm) for vaccine research.

Under a research and exclusive license agreement, Receptor Logic will create custom TCRm in support of Sanofi Pasteur's vaccine programs. Specifically, those receptor mimics will be used in the validation and testing of sanofi pasteur vaccines, according to Austin, Tex.-based Receptor Logic.

This is "one of the hottest areas of vaccine development," Greg Pogue, executive vice president of Receptor Logic, told BioWorld Today. The analytic tests for T-cell receptors, used to measure how well patients respond to a vaccine, can be tedious and cumbersome, he explained.

But TCRm could allow the assays to be done in a "very facile manner" and in a standardized fashion, with more reliable and quantifiable data, Pogue said. "These biochemical tools assist scientists engaged in discovery research and facilitate companies to meet regulatory requirements associated with new vaccine product development, such as vaccine potency measurements."

He added, "TCRm reagents allow scientists to obtain higher-quality data while working with greater accuracy and flexibility. Furthermore, different vaccine permutations can be compared using TCRm in a rapid, standardized fashion."

TCRm could have broader application in the area of disease diagnostics and therapeutic modalities, Pogue said. "The specificity of TCRm to bind biomarkers directly associated with cellular disease supports broader utility beyond assays associated with vaccine product development," he said.

Receptor Logic specializes in antibodies that mimic the specificity of T-cell receptors in the immune system. In addition to private funding, the company also has been awarded grants and has relationships with seven clients that provide further funding, Pogue said. In 2004 Receptor Logic was awarded $2 million from the Advanced Technology Program of the National Institute of Standards & Technology to fund development of a cancer profiling and immunotherapy platform targeting breast cancer.

In other deals announced Wednesday:

• Edgeline Holdings Inc., of Houston, has agreed to terms for an exclusive worldwide right to option patents covering the composition and use of Genistein analogues for cancer treatment. The technology was discovered and patented by the Pharmaceutical Research Institute in Warsaw, Poland, and involves compounds that appear to be novel antimicrotubule agents, which are of great interest to the cancer community. Edgeline also announced it is changing its name to Oncolin Therapeutics Inc. Financial terms were not disclosed.

• Invitrogen Corp., of Carlsbad, Calif., said it has joined with Genisphere Inc., of Hatfield, Pa., to advance epigenetic research by offering new kits that could reduce the time it takes scientists to detect and label microRNAs. The new kits will allow scientists to complete an experiment in less than eight hours. The test reliably detects two to 10 copies of microRNA per cell. Under the deal, Invitrogen will become the exclusive provider of fluorescent microRNA microarray labeling kits, using Genisphere's 3DNA dendrimer signal amplification technology. Financial terms were not disclosed.

• Manhattan Pharmaceuticals Inc., of New York, said it received a $2 million cash payment as a result of the closing of its 50/50 joint venture agreement with Nordic Biotech Venture Fund II K/S, of Copenhagen, Denmark. The two firms joined to develop and commercialize Hedrin, Manhattan's novel, non-insecticide treatment for head lice for the North American market. The new joint venture has been named Hedrin Pharmaceuticals K/S. Under the joint venture agreement, and upon Hedrin receiving medical device designation from the FDA by Sept. 30, Hedrin will receive an additional $2.5 million in cash from Nordic, pay Manhattan Pharmaceuticals an additional $1.5 million in cash, and issue $2.5 million in equity to both Nordic and Manhattan.

• ReachBio LLC, of Seattle, said it will distribute the full product line of Axiogenesis AG, of Cologne, Germany, in North America. The first cell types available from Axiogenesis are 99.9 percent pure atrial cardiomyocytes in various formats, ReachBio said. Financial terms were not disclosed.

• Sangamo BioSciences Inc., of Richmond, Va., said it has expanded on its original research and license agreement with Genentech Inc., of South San Francisco, to include additional targets to potentially improve protein pharmaceutical production in mammalian cells. Sangamo said its zinc finger DNA-binding protein nuclease technology will be used to target genes identified by Genentech for potential improvement of production cell lines. Financial terms were not disclosed. Last year, Sangamo entered into a deal with St. Louis-based Sigma-Aldrich to commercialize the research aspects of the technology in several areas, including the field of protein production.

• Sigma-Aldrich Corp., of St. Louis, and MorphoSys AG, of Munich, Germany, entered into a collaboration to design, produce and distribute recombinant research antibodies using MorphoSys's proprietary HuCAL Gold technology. MorphoSys unit AbD Serotec will develop and qualify unique antibodies from MorphoSys's HuCAL Gold library against a committed number of targets identified by Sigma-Aldrich. Sigma-Aldrich will offer the HuCAL-based recombinant research antibodies for use in research applications through its Internet sales platforms. Financial terms were not disclosed.