Dendright is a private Australian biotech company based in Brisbane, Queensland. We are developing vaccines that target Dendritic cells to suppress autoimmune diseases.

Dendright Pty Ltd was established in 2005 and has been assisted by grant funding from the Queensland Government’s Innovationⁱ Start-up Scheme and from the Australian Government’s Biotechnology Innovation Fund to progress preclinical development of the Dendritic cell technology. The company’s shareholder is UniQuest Pty Limited, the main commercialisation company of The University of Queensland.

Dendright Pty Ltd is seeking investment for its current clinical development program, as well for the application of the technology in other autoimmune disease areas. Patentⁱ applications are in National Phase in  Australia, USA, Europe, Canada, Japan, India and China.

The Dendright Technology

Dendright has developed a platform vaccine technology to treat autoimmune diseases such as Rheumatoid Arthritis and Type 1 Diabetes. The technology utilises the body’s own immune system to “silence” those T cells that cause these severe chronic diseases. The technology may also be applicable to symptoms associated with allergy, transplantation, and graft rejection.

Dendritic Cells are key cells in the immune system that present antigens to T cells. Dendritic Cells can present proteins from infectious agents or from the body’s own tissues and organs. Inflammatory presentation of self-tissue proteins can lead to autoimmune disease in a certain proportion of the population. Dendright’s researchers have shown that manipulating Dendritic Cells to silence rather than to activate the immune system very effectively turns off immune responses to given antigens.

The research team, led by Professor Ranjeny Thomas discovered that by turning off a key molecule (NF kappa B), Dendritic Cells could be changed from an activating phenotype to the phenotype that silences the immune system in an antigen-specific manner. Dendright has developed a novel liposome product that targets dendritic cells to  “re-train” the body’s immune system’s response to antigens. In animal models of rheumatoid arthritis, the vaccine has been shown to suppress the symptoms of disease.

At present, Dendright is focusing its research on a therapeutic vaccine for rheumatoid arthritis – an incurable disease affecting close to one per cent of the population. However, the company’s technology has the potential to develop immunotherapeutic vaccines targeting other autoimmune diseases.

The vaccine targets the underlying cause of the disease, potentially avoiding common side effects of existing immunosuppressant drug therapies, such as infection susceptibility.

Board

Dr Don Kakuda (Chair) UniQuest Pty Ltd
Professor Ranjeny Thomas (Director) The University of Queensland Diamantina Institute

Scientists

The Dendright research team is led by Professor Ranjeny Thomas (MBBS, FRACP, MD). Prof Thomas is a clinical rheumatologist and Research Leader of the Dendritic Cell Biology Group, UQ Diamantina Institute. Dr Thomas has more than 20 years of clinical and scientific experience and is the author of numerous publications on dendritic cell biology, and rheumatoid arthritis.

Contact Dendright 

Dr Lisa Bidwell
Level 7, General Purpose South
Staff House RoadThe University of Queensland
Brisbane QLD 4072 Australia
PO Box 6069
St Lucia QLD 4072 Australia
Ph: 61 7 3365 4037
Fax: 61 7 3365 4433
E: l.bidwell@uniquest.com.au

Media release