ImmSygma™
A Next-Generation Fully Synthetic Glycomolecule Adjuvant Platform

ImmunAdd believes the next generation of vaccine adjuvants must be built on a fully synthetic platform that is designable, manufacturable and sustainably suppliable. We therefore established ImmSygma™ (ImmunAdd Synthetic GlycoMolecule Adjuvants), built on fully synthetic glycomolecule chemistry to deliver adjuvants that are potent, safe, stable and scalable.

The Sygma in our platform name echoes the Greek letter Sigma (Σ)—and that is no coincidence. The two meanings Σ carries are precisely the design philosophy behind ImmSygma™.

Σ as Summation The Power of Combination

In mathematics, Σ denotes summation—bringing multiple elements together into a single whole. ImmSygma™ works the same way: the role of a vaccine adjuvant is to help a vaccine achieve prevention and treatment of infectious disease, cancer and beyond. An adjuvant does not act in isolation; it is integrated into the vaccine formulation, activating multiple immune signalling pathways in concert to achieve a breadth and magnitude of immunity that no single component can reach alone. This spirit of combination is what ImmSygma™ stands for.

Σ as Precision Six Sigma Quality

In quality management, Sigma is the unit of process variation, and Six Sigma has become synonymous with manufacturing precision and excellence. This mirrors the core value of fully synthetic chemistry: unlike natural extracts with their inherent batch-to-batch variability, every ImmSygma™ molecule is chemically synthesised with a defined structure and controlled purity—making batch consistency, stability and scalability intrinsic properties of the platform rather than an added quality-control burden.

Summation and precision—ImmSygma™ is named for both, and committed to both.

Saponins are naturally occurring plant glycomolecules with excellent immunostimulatory activity, and have long been an important source of potent vaccine adjuvants. Those used in vaccines today are extracted mainly from the bark of the Chilean Quillaja saponaria tree, and include structurally related components such as QS-7, QS-18 and QS-21.

Reliance on natural extraction, however, carries inherent constraints: bark supply is subject to geography and harvest season; the extract is a multi-component mixture; batch-to-batch consistency is difficult to control; and limited chemical stability and purification yield drive up cost while capping manufacturing scale. Together these factors restrict the broader application of natural saponin adjuvants in next-generation vaccines.

What the field needs is therefore not another extract, but a sustainable, scalable and structurally defined fully synthetic alternative.

IA-05 is the core molecule of the ImmSygma™ platform. Its fully synthetic design preserves the immunostimulatory capability of saponin adjuvants while overcoming the limitations of natural sourcing—improving quality consistency, stability and manufacturability.

Table  ImmSygma™ IA-05 compared with QS-21, the benchmark natural saponin

IA-41 is the ImmSygma™ platform’s fully synthetic monophosphoryl lipid A (MPLA) analogue—a phosphorylated hexa-acyl disaccharide and a well-validated Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) agonist.

Mechanism of Action TLR4 Signalling

By activating TLR4, IA-41 initiates the innate immune signalling cascade: dendritic cells and macrophages mature, co-stimulatory molecules are upregulated, and antigen processing and presentation are enhanced, alongside the induction of proinflammatory cytokines. This pathway directs the response toward Th1-type cellular immunity while also boosting antibody responses—precisely the immune profile required for vaccines against intracellular pathogens and for cancer immunotherapy.

Why Fully Synthetic Consistency by Design

Conventional MPLA is derived by detoxifying and purifying lipopolysaccharide (LPS) from Salmonella minnesota, and is inherently a multi-component mixture—subject to batch-to-batch variability, biological-source risk and limits on supply scale. IA-41 is instead prepared by a fully synthetic route, giving a defined structure, single-component composition and excellent batch consistency, with stable scale-up under cGMP—while retaining the desirable low reactogenicity and high adjuvant activity of MPLA-class adjuvants.

IA-41 also offers excellent process and formulation compatibility, and can be co-embedded with IA-05 in a liposomal carrier to form the ImmSygma™ IA-541 combination adjuvant system.

By integrating IA-05 and IA-41 into a proprietary formulation, the ImmSygma™ IA-541 combination adjuvant activates multiple immune signalling pathways in concert, enhancing both humoral and cellular immunity. Its modular design allows optimisation for different vaccine platforms and indications.

Efficacy in Pre-Clinical Models Humoral & Cellular Immunity

In pre-clinical models, ImmSygma™ IA-541-adjuvanted vaccines induce strong and durable humoral (antibody) and cellular (T-cell) immune responses, with immunogenicity—and in particular cell-mediated immunity—comparable to or better than current standard comparator adjuvants such as AS01®.

cGMP Manufacturing Scalable and Controlled

Both IA-05 and IA-41 are produced by fully synthetic processes with excellent manufacturability and scale-up potential. Following formulation development, the two components are manufactured under cGMP control, achieving excellent uniformity, sterility and production at scale.

Table  ImmSygma™ IA-541 compared with a leading benchmark adjuvant

AS01® is a registered trademark of GSK Biologicals S.A.