With there having been very limited SBIR-involvement by Distributed Bio, in December 2020 it was announced that the firm had been acquired for a reported $83M by Charles River Laboratories - that firm having previously acquired six (6) other SBIR Awardees. Distributed Bio LLC had described themselves as computational immuno-engineers having a mission is to create breakthrough technologies to drug previously challenging targets (GPCRs, ion channels, pMHC complexes, condition-specific binders, anti-idiotypes, and broadly neutralizing viral epitopes). Their work and engagement crosses and engages elements in the fields of Bioinformatics, Biotechnology, Cloud Computing, Pharmaceutical. In monoclonal therapeutics space, the firm's integration of computational immunology, bioengineering and robotics has enabled the development of a pipeline of molecules with unprecedented biophysical properties, while also supporting the various partners of the firm with thousands of high affinity developable antibodies against any drug target of interest. In vaccine science, the firm's Centivax technology is producing broad-spectrum vaccines against rapidly mutating pathogens like influenza and HIV. Like others inthe SBIR arena they note that their team of volunteers is working hard on developing a therapeutic against SARS-CoV-2.
