In this ASH 2013 interview, Harlan Robins, PhD, co‑founder of Adaptive Biotechnologies, explains the company’s origins as a Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center spin‑out that merges immunology and genomics to sequence B‑cell and T‑cell receptors. He describes two flagship offerings: ImmunoSeek, a research‑use service that generates massive receptor‑sequencing data for academic and pharma clients, and a clinical laboratory‑developed test that detects lymphoid malignancies and monitors minimal residual disease (MRD) with unprecedented sensitivity. Robins highlights the company’s rapid growth from six to about fifty employees and notes that key opinion leaders are already using their technology. He discusses data presented at the conference, especially a Children’s Oncology Group study showing that patients deemed MRD‑negative by Adaptive’s 100‑times‑more‑sensitive assay have a <5% relapse risk versus a 25% relapse risk when assessed with standard methods. Robins frames this as proof that highly sensitive molecular testing is not just the future but a present clinical reality, positioning Adaptive Biotechnologies as a leader in the shift toward precision oncology.
Joining us now at ASH 2013 in New Orleans is Harlan Robbins, PhD. He's co-founder of Adaptive Biotechnologies Corporation in Seattle, Washington. Beautiful Seattle, Washington. Thanks for joining us, sir. Thank you. If you would, just give us a little background on your company and what it does.
Yeah, so we're a spin-out from Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center in Seattle, and we combined immunology and genomics to sequence the B-cell and T-cell receptors, which are part of the adaptive immune system. And this is a— it started as a collaboration between my lab at Fred Hutchinson, Dr. Edith Warren at Fred Hutchinson, and Dr. Chris Carlson at Fred Hutchinson. And in 2010, we spun the company out. It's actually physically right down the street, so we can walk back and forth as needed. And it's We presently have two products available. The first is a research-use-only product called Immunoseek. And what this is, is it's an in-house assay where researchers send us samples from all over the world, including academic key opinion leaders as well as most major pharma companies. Samples are brought in-house, we perform our assay, which creates a massive amount of genomics data, specifically the T-cell and B-cell receptor data, which we then upload onto our relational database, and everybody, all our clients, get a secure login, and they're able to visualize and analyze the data using our tools that we've developed. And then, if they so desire, they can, of course, download the data and use it in any way they like., but we also have a team of bioinformaticists which helps them understand the data. Hopefully as time progresses and this becomes more and more widely used, that will become less and less necessary because people have their own in-house, you know, expertise in these areas. But for now, we're the experts because we've been playing with this data for, for years. Now, as related to this particular conference, ASH 2013, The, it's our other product that I think is getting the most traction, and that's our clinical product. So we have a laboratory-developed test, and this laboratory-developed test is to both help detect lymphoid malignancies, blood cancers, as well as detect, monitor minimal residual disease. What is the cancer burden after treatment at any later time point? And it's, a precise, accurate molecular test that's gaining wider and wider use as we go.
Now, you had some data being presented here?
Yes, so we have, there's at least 12 different posters and 4 different talks, and we're probably involved in research with another 5 or 6 talks as well, but those talks are presenting our, the results that we've been able to provide for the residual disease testing. What most of these researchers are using our assay for is to determine whether or not their therapy has actually gotten rid of the cancer, which is the objective obviously of their therapy. And since we're 100 times more sensitive than what's generally the state of the art or has been the state of the art for the last 20, 30 years, we're able to, at a very precise level, really determine whether the therapy truly cured somebody or just knocked down their cancer at some level that might come back at a later time point.
So Harlan, you've got your fingers in a lot of different things here. What's your take on the significance of the material being presented here at this conference?
Basically, we, in terms of, in terms of From us, I think, as we started here 4 years ago when we had a 6-person company, and now we have a 50-person company, and most of the key opinion leaders, many of them are using our technology, and at least all the rest have now heard of us and are aware of it and are contemplating it. And so from our perspective, there's a couple key pieces of data being presented that I think really will, we hope, push the whole field towards the molecular testing. I mean, we see it as the future, and I think a lot of, if you ask the top people in the area, they would also say it's the future, but we're also trying to say, hey, it's not just the future, it's the present. We can do it now. But in order to do that, you need to develop the set of significant datasets that prove it. And there's a few larger datasets that are being presented here that I think really nail down the advantages of having the more sensitive and accurate assay. In particular, we're able to— there's a talk on Tuesday morning by Michael Pulsifer, part of the Children's Oncology Group, where they're really found that in the patients that, that for BALL that do not have, that we're not able to find any residual disease by our sensitive method, those patients have less than 5% chance of relapsing, whereas the patients that are found to not have residual disease by the state-of-the-art, which is less sensitive, 25% of those still relapse. So it's really saying, you know, the difference between being cured and not being cured. And I think that data set, which obviously we're writing up for publication as well, but when he presents that, I think that that's, you know, symbolic of, from our perspective of, symbolic is probably another word, but it's a turning point for us to really say, here's the true clinical value of this. Very good.
We wish you luck.
Continued growth.
Thank you. Harlan Robbins, PhD, co-founder of Adaptive Biotechnologies Corporation, joining us here in New Orleans at ASH 2013.
