Network Immunology Inc. is a privately owned Vancouver based biotechnology company, consisting of a team of individuals who are committed to developing solutions to some of the world’s most urgent health issues.

The Company is developing three medications. The first is an HIV vaccine, the second is a method for facilitating organ transplantation, and the third is a medication for the prevention and treatment of autoimmunity. These technologies are based on Geoffrey W. Hoffmann’s symmetrical immune network theory, which he has developed over a period of 36 years. This theory describes how the immune system functions and learns as a network of interacting immune system cells.

Research in immunology typically involves studying how a single immune system responds to pathogens or other things that are foreign to the organism. Network Immunology’s technologies are based on the way that multiple immune system networks can be tailored to interact and harmonize with each other.

What are the major premises of immune network theory?

Immune network theory states that the “recognizers” of the immune system (the lymphocytes and antibodies) don’t only recognize foreign entities, but also recognize and interact with each other.  Understanding these network interactions of the system is important in order to understand the issues of autoimmunity, organ rejection and HIV.

In 1984, Dr. Niels Jerne won the Nobel Prize for the founding of immune network theory. However, an enigma arose in the early 1980’s concerning IJ, which is the central regulating unit of the immune system in the context of network theory. This is to say, with regard to the immune system, IJ is the center of “self”.

Immunologists had mapped the genome to the place where they expected the gene for IJ to be, but they soon found that the gene was not there. This came to be known as the IJ paradox. This problem regarding IJ baffled immunologists at the time, to the extent that they threw out the baby with the bathwater. In other words, they walked away from the theory because of the confusion around IJ which, as a central component of the system, is crucial for the theory to work.  The vast majority of immunologists from then onward chose to shift their focus toward the details of the system, as opposed to developing this framework for understanding the system as a whole.

In contrast, Network Immunology’s Chief Scientist, Dr. Geoffrey Hoffmann, was captivated by this fundamental riddle, and turned his focus towards resolving IJ.  In 1994 he published a solution to the IJ riddle in a peer reviewed journal, but by then almost everyone in the field had moved away from network theory.  Hoffmann continued to develop immune network theory, and in 2008, he and Earnest Leung, discovered a phenomenon called “Restriction of V-V interactions in serum IgG”, which led to further theoretical progress. Three applications of the recently extended theory have since emerged from a single principle of the system that Hoffmann and his colleagues call “extended second symmetry”.

These applications include a novel HIV vaccine, that Network Immunology expects will be effective against multiple strains of HIV, an organ transplant facilitation technology, and a preventive and treatment for the various autoimmune disorders, including diabetes, arthritis and multiple sclerosis.

For further scientific information, feel free to read the introduction and contents section of Dr. Hoffmann’s book on immune network theory.

Network Immunology’s Chief Scientist, Geoffrey W. Hoffmann, has discovered a way to make a kind of antibody for humans that has been shown in studies with mice to be intimately associated with the suppression of the immune system.  Network Immunology has filed a patent application for the use of this kind of antibody in the prevention and treatment of autoimmunity.

On January 4th, 2011, Network Immunology Inc. filed provisional patent applications for it’s HIV vaccine and organ transplantation technologies. Both of these technologies have emerged from recent developments in Network Theory as applied to the immune system, and are closely related to each other at the level of the fundamental science.

Network Immunology Inc. is seeking a private equity financing in order to initiate an R&D programme to further develop these technologies as quickly as possible.

Network Immunology’s scientists are excited about these developments. According to Chief Scientist, Dr. Geoffrey Hoffmann, “The HIV vaccine is a simpler potential solution than anyone could have imagined, to what has been an intractable problem. The transplantation technology provides a method for people requiring transplants that helps them to selectively accept a new organ, while at the same time retaining their immunological defenses against other foreign organisms. This technology involves a case by case tailoring of the recipient’s immune system, to the organ donor’s tissue. To our knowledge, no other group has been working on this type of technology. This technology has the potential to remove the need for immunosuppressant drugs altogether.”