Pacagen: On-Target Allergen Management

For decades, allergy care has looked the same—medications to quiet symptoms or allergy shots to “train” the immune system. Both can help, but they often come at a cost. Drowsiness, fatigue, and brain fog are common side effects, not because the treatments are poor, but because they act on the whole body rather than the true source of the problem.

In the second article of this four part series, we discuss our WhiskerBlock™ and EnviroBlock™ invention.

At Pacagen, we asked a different question: instead of managing symptoms inside the body, what if we could specifically neutralize allergen? That search led to the discovery of our breakthrough allergen-neutralizing proteins, WhiskerBlock™ and EnviroBlock™. Applied directly in your home, they break up allergen particles at the source, turning them harmless within minutes.

This discovery revealed something even more important: success depends on precision. To truly stop allergies without side effects, a treatment must be highly specific—able to target the allergen itself while leaving everything else untouched. That is where WhiskerBlockTM and EnviroBlockTM stand apart, and why specificity matters.

WhiskerBlock™ and EnviroBlock™: Inspired by Nature, Refined by Engineering

Great tools begin with great design. And oftentimes, the best designs start with nature. That’s why our name means “derived from alpacas.” Because inside the immune systems of these remarkable animals lies a powerful tool that’s reimagining how we manage allergies.

It’s not magic. It’s science.

The Alpaca Advantage

All mammals, including humans, produce tiny proteins called antibodies: specialized proteins designed to find and neutralize foreign invaders like bacteria and viruses.

But alpacas are different.

Their immune systems produce a rare kind of antibody known as single-domain antibodies - a tiny, but powerful protein that’s naturally stable, structurally simple, while being remarkably precise. These traits make them ideal building blocks for advanced protein engineering and bio-manufacturing techniques - technologies that weren’t even available several years ago.

From this natural gift, we created something extraordinary: WhiskerBlock™and EnviroBlock™. Through a process of discovery, validation, and manufacturing, we engineered these proteins to bind and deactivate major cat, dog, and dust mite allergens with extreme precision and reliability.

Discovery of WhiskerBlock™ and EnviroBlock™: One out of Billions

WhiskerBlock™ / EnviroBlock™ is a new class of bio-inspired protein technology built from the ground up for environmental allergen mitigation.

Creating a WhiskerBlock™ or EnviroBlock™isn’t simply copying something from nature - it is a deliberate and highly selective engineering process. It starts with identifying allergens we want to block from cats, dogs, and dust mites.

From there, we leverage advanced molecular techniques to construct a collection of alpaca-derived antibodies - over one billion unique variants, each representing a distinct design. Every variant is a potential WhiskerBlock™ candidate, but only a few will possess the optimal combination of traits: the ability to engage tightly to the target allergens, maintain structural stability under real-world conditions, and - most critically - demonstrate exceptional specificity.

To identify the top-performing candidates from this gigantic pool, our scientists used a biotechnology adapted from a Nobel prize-winning discovery.1-3 This technique rigorously tests each candidate’s ability to engage the intended allergen - weeding out those that are weak, unstable, or not specific. Through this iterative process, we identified only the proteins that met our uncompromising standards for efficacy and specificity.

Out of billions, only a handful of candidates made the cut - and that’s exactly by design. The most effective and highly specific candidates were refined and developed into WhiskerBlockTM and EnviroBlockTM.

The real breakthrough is precision.

Each protein is engineered to target and deactivate on the intended allergens it’s meant to target - leaving everything else untouched. This allows them to work fast and effectively without disrupting your or your pet’s body. By honing in on allergens with such accuracy, WhiskerBlockTM and EnviroBlockTM offer relief without the compromises that come with traditional approaches.

Specificity is Safety

In biology and medicine, specificity isn’t just a technical detail, it’s the difference between help and harm. A truly specific interaction means that a molecule engages only with its exact target while ignoring everything else. Without that precision, even well-intended treatments can cause unwanted side effects.

Imagine living in a huge apartment building. A master key that opens every door would be a security nightmare. What you want is a key that opens only your apartment door, no more, no less. Or think of an archer drawing back a bow. If the arrow strays even slightly, it can cause damage. True specificity is when the arrow lands in the bullseye every single time.

This is exactly how WhiskerBlock™ and EnviroBlock™ work, but instead of keys and arrows, the precision comes from protein-protein interactions.

Proteins have complex three-dimensional shapes with unique surfaces, folds, and charge distributions. Just as puzzle pieces fit together only in one orientation, proteins interact through highly specific molecular contacts such as hydrogen bonds, hydrophobic patches, and electrostatic interactions that allow them to recognize only their intended binding partners.

WhiskerBlock™ and EnviroBlock™ are engineered to exploit this principle. Each protein is designed with binding regions that match the molecular “fingerprints” of allergen proteins such as Fel d 1 from cats or Der p 1 from dust mites.

When applied to the environment, the WhiskerBlock™ / EnviroBlock™ proteins lock on these allergens with remarkable selectivity. They dock tightly and disrupt the allergens’ natural structure, breaking them down into subunits that are no longer capable of triggering immune responses.

This level of accuracy matters because your and your pet’s body contain billions of other proteins that carry out vital functions. A product that binds indiscriminately could interfere with healthy processes, much like antihistamines that reduce symptoms but also cause drowsiness. WhiskerBlock and EnviroBlock avoid this problem by recognizing only allergen proteins.

That’s why we say specificity equals safety.

An allergen-neutralizing product should never interact with anything other than the allergen itself. By focusing solely on the targets, WhiskerBlock™ and EnviroBlock™ do just one job: deactivate the allergens that trigger your symptoms, and nothing else.

And this precision offers more than peace of mind. It makes the technology safer, more effective, and more reliable. You can trust that the proteins are working exactly where they should- and nowhere they shouldn’t.

Pacagen is Safe for Humans and Pets

We didn’t just give WhiskerBlock™ and EnviroBlock™ a quick safety check- we pushed them to the limit.

In our studies, we tested these proteins against a wide range of real human and animal cell types, not just one or two. This included:

• Skin cells: like those on your hands, face, and scalp
  
• Internal organ cells: including kidney and muscle cells
  
• Blood vessel cells: essential for circulation and controlling inflammation
  

To truly stress-test safety, we went far beyond realistic exposure. We exposed cells to doses hundreds of thousands of times higher than what anyone would ever encounter in daily life. And the result? Nothing happened- in the best possible way. The cells remained healthy, active, and completely normal.

Why is this so reassuring? Because this means that even under extreme conditions, WhiskerBlock and EnviroBlock are very gentle to humans and animals. In fact, they can be safer than serum proteins- the abundant proteins that constantly circulate in blood and tissues, carrying out vital roles without harming cells. Just as serum proteins coexist peacefully with every part of your body, WhiskerBlock and EnviroBlock interact only with their intended allergen targets and leave everything else untouched.

This makes them fundamentally different from common household products like bleaches. Those chemicals can be harsh, irritating skin or lungs if overused. WhiskerBlock, on the other hand, is as gentle as the natural proteins already inside your body yet highly effective against allergens.

That’s why you can use it with complete confidence. Spray WhiskerBlock on your couch, carpet, pet bed, or even your own bedding without a second thought. No skin irritation. No lung concerns. No hidden surprises. Just peace of mind- and the freedom to breathe comfortably in your own home.

From Alpacas to the Lab and Into the World

What started with alpacas has turned into a powerful platform for building safer, smarter proteins. At Pacagen, we’re using this foundation to tackle challenges where specificity makes all the difference- reducing active allergen level and making you breathe easier.

But no matter how far science goes, we stay grounded in our core idea: precision from nature, refined by engineering.

References

1. Boder, E. T., & Wittrup, K. D. (1997). Yeast surface display for screening combinatorial polypeptide libraries. Nature Biotechnology, 15(6), 553–557.
2. Smith, G. P. (1985). Filamentous fusion phage: novel expression vectors that display cloned antigens on the virion surface. Science, 228(4705), 1315–1317.
3. The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2018. (2018, October 3). NobelPrize.org. Nobel Prize Outreach AB. https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/chemistry/2018/summary/