Kemp Proteins, LLC, a Frederick, Maryland-based gene-to-protein services provider, announced on September 17, 2026 a strategic partnership with NeuImmune to implement NeuImmune’s proprietary glycoengineered CHO (geCHO) BioDesign platform, giving Kemp greater control over protein glycosylation in its cell line development and recombinant protein production work.
“The geCHO platform provides greater control over glycosylation and its impact on protein performance, including structure, stability, function, and antigen recognition. It gives us an opportunity to engineer glycans as part of the protein development process rather than treating it as a variable of production,” said Dr. Carter Mitchell, Chief Scientific Officer at Kemp Proteins.
Why Glycosylation Control Is Hard to Get Right
Glycosylation — the attachment of sugar structures to proteins — is a critical modification that can shape a protein’s efficacy, stability, formulation, half-life, safety, and immunogenicity. The problem: conventional recombinant protein expression tends to produce a mix of glycoforms largely dictated by the production cell itself, making it difficult to systematically test how different glycosylation patterns affect performance. NeuImmune’s geCHO platform addresses this with a panel of 28 geCHO cell lines built from a GMP-ready CHO-S parental line, genome-edited to produce a broad range of defined N-glycan structures — including high-mannose, mono- through tetra-antennary, fucosylated and afucosylated variants, and different sialylation profiles. Resulting protein variants can then be tested for activity, stability, and half-life to identify which glycoform actually performs best.
The platform also includes GlyCompare, part of NeuImmune’s explanatory AI and systems-biology framework, which breaks down glycoprofiles into shared glycan substructures to help link specific glycan features to specific biological effects — letting glycosylation data be evaluated alongside preclinical performance data rather than as an isolated measurement.
A National Security Angle: Targeting Ebola and Sudan Virus
Beyond general protein development, NeuImmune — working with Kemp’s cell line development team — is applying the geCHO platform to infectious-disease programs, including monoclonal antibodies targeting filoviruses such as Ebola and Sudan virus. “Ebola is a clear example of why greater control over the production of complex proteins matters,” said Mike Keefe, CEO of Kemp Proteins. “For vaccines, therapeutics, and health security applications, understanding how a protein is produced, and being able to consistently reproduce it, is critical. Technologies like geCHO give us greater control over those variables and, ultimately, over the quality and performance of the proteins we deliver.”
That work was awarded through the Biopharmaceutical Manufacturing Preparedness Consortium (BioMaP-Consortium), overseen by BARDA and managed by Advanced Technology International, with federal funding routed through HHS’s Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response and BARDA. “With our proprietary geCHO BioDesign platform and our deep expertise in precision engineering of biologics with distinct glycosylation signatures, we look forward to advancing novel antibodies to treat these devastating viral infections,” said Thomas Fuerst, Founder and Chairman of NeuImmune. “This work is foundational to addressing this national security need.”
About NeuImmune, Inc.
NeuImmune is an early-stage biotechnology company focused on precision glycoengineered biologics for orphan and infectious diseases. Founded by scientists from the University of Maryland, University of Georgia, and the Technical University of Denmark, its geCHO BioDesign platform combines glycoengineered CHO cell lines with computational approaches to produce defined glycoforms of therapeutic proteins and vaccine antigens, including monoclonal antibodies targeting filoviruses like Ebola and Sudan virus.
About Kemp Proteins, LLC
Based in Frederick, MD, Kemp Proteins, LLC is a premier provider of gene-to-protein solutions, helping researchers and biotechnology innovators overcome complex protein development challenges. For more than 30 years, Kemp has provided expertise in recombinant protein expression, protein engineering, stable cell line development, purification, analytical characterization, and process optimization. Kemp supports the development of diagnostics, therapeutics, vaccines, and next-generation biologics, helping clients accelerate development timelines and improve reproducibility from discovery through scalable production. The implementation of glycoengineered CHO technology further expands Kemp’s ability to provide integrated, precision-oriented protein development and production solutions.
