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Therapeutic Antibody Centre (TAC)

Old Road, Headington, Oxford, OX3 7JT.
Tel: (01865) 744845 FAX: (01865) 741291.

As of November 1st 2005, the operations of the Therapeutic Antibody Centre in regard to production of TIG antibodies will stop.
A large part of the Centre's activities will now be devoted to GMP manufacture of DNA vaccines and Gene Therapeutics under the management of the Department of Medicine.
These web pages remain available only as a historical record of the TAC's achievements.

Clinical Director: Prof Herman Waldmann

Research Director: Prof Geoff Hale	TAC Secretary: Carol Parsons
Development Manager: Dr Pru Bird	Development Assistant: Emma Bolam
Quality Assurance Manager: Dr Eleanor Berrie	Quality Assurance Assistant: Tony Gallagher
Production Manager: Stephen Yates	Production Assistants: Gavin McKinley

The TAC was originally set up in Cambridge by Geoff Hale and Herman Waldmann and operated there from 1990 to 1995. It served as a link between the research effort of Herman Waldmann‘s group (working on antibody-based therapies for autoimmune and related diseases) and the application of new products and concepts in the clinic. Monoclonal antibodies and related proteins are produced by cell culture and purified to a standard suitable for clinical trials. The antibodies most intensively studied have been the CAMPATH-1 family, which recognise a molecule (CD52) found on human lymphocytes. These have been used in bone marrow and solid organ transplantation for the prevention of graft-versus-host disease and treatment of rejection as well as in the treatment of leukaemia, rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis and other autoimmune diseases. There is now a large demand for CAMPATH-1 antibodies to facilitate unrelated donor transplants.

The TAC is now part of the Sir William Dunn School of Pathology and has moved into a new purpose built facility on the Churchill Hospital Site. Funding for the new building and running expenses were granted by LeukoSite Inc, a US biotechnology company that is now part of Millenium Pharmaceuticals Inc., and the Medical Research Council.

Fully operational since December 1995, it continued production of CAMPATH-1 antibodies for clinical trials as well as many other projects. In addition, the TAC aims to contribute to developments in experimental hollow fibre fermentation, purification and standardisation which will be of general relevance to production of biologicals from mammalian cells.

"Our aim is to provide the best antibodies for academic research"