Immutep Limited (ASX: IMM; Nasdaq: IMMP) and Monash University's Biomedicine Discovery Institute have secured a new Australian Research Council grant of AUD 652,248 over three years to continue their LAG-3 structural biology collaboration, with Immutep contributing funding from its existing research budget and providing access to LAG-3-specific constructs, reagents, and antibodies.
The three-year project, titled "A structural investigation into Lymphocyte activation gene-3," will be led by Professor Jamie Rossjohn at the Biomedicine Discovery Institute and will examine how LAG-3 regulates immune responses, including its interactions with MHC Class II, its role within the immunological synapse, and the influence of those interactions on immune cell signalling. The role of IMP761, an agonist LAG-3 antibody, will be specifically assessed for ligand binding, changes within the immunological synapse, and functional outcome.
The collaboration has been supported by ARC Linkage Projects grants since 2017, with Immutep also providing direct financial and scientific support between grant periods. The prior work produced the first crystal structure of the human LAG-3/MHC Class II complex, solved by Dr. Jan Petersen and published in Science Immunology in December 2024.