Antibody Therapeutics Xchange
East Coast 2021
May 17 & 19

Welcome to hubXchange’s virtual East Coast Antibody Therapeutics Xchange 2021, bringing together executives from pharma and biotech to address and find solutions to the key issues faced in developing antibody therapeutics.
Discussion topics will cover Target Selection, Lead Identification & Optimization, Formats & Scaffolds, Antibody Strategies Driving Cell Therapies and Emerging Technologies.
Take advantage of this unique highly interactive meeting format designed for maximum engagement, collaboration and networking with your peers.

Target Selection

Time

Titles and Bullets

Facilitator

DAY 1 (May 17, 2021)

8:30 – 9:00am

Opening Address & Keynote: Measurements of aptamer-target affinity by Kinetics Exclusion Assay (KinExA), Daniel Fologea, Adjunct Scientist, Sapidyne Instruments & Professor of Physics, Boise State University

9:10 – 10:10am

Leveraging polyclonal antibody sequencing to get high affinity binders against tough targets

What challenges have you faced when working with a polyclonal antibody reagent?
How have you overcome issues in obtaining high affinity binders against large protein antigens?
Can new technologies generate high affinity antibodies in a cost-effective way?

Anthony Stajduhar

Director, International Business Development
Rapid Novor

Anthony has been heading the business development at Rapid Novor for nearly 4 years, merging his previous 8 years of experience in the business roles with a strong passion for biomedical research, stemming from his training in biomedical engineering. His current efforts are focused on the growth of the REpAb™and NovorIg™ platforms with pharmaceutical and biotech companies globally. His partnerships are focused on using REpAb in patients or animal models to sequence monoclonal antibodies from polyclonal sera, as well as immune system profiling using NovorIg, the team’s NGS based analysis to monitor the relative quantity of specific antibodies over time. Anthony’s a maker and in his spare time takes advantage of the Toronto HackLab to do biological research and other engineering projects.

10:10 – 11:00am

BREAK

11:00 – 11:30am

1-2-1 Meetings

11:30 – 12:00pm

1-2-1 Meetings

12:00 – 1:00pm

BREAK

1:00 – 1:30pm

1-2-1 Meetings

1:40 – 2:40pm

Antibody target selection challenges: splicing, multimeric complexes, and glycosylation

The vast majority of genes are alternatively spliced which one we choose
Can we focus on pathological specific spliced targets?
Antibody targets are often part of multimeric complexes. How can we best target them?
Glycosylation is complex and cell specific does it alter antibody activity?

Marco Muda

Senior Director
Abpro

Marco obtained his PhD from University of Geneva, Switzerland and sponsored by the Glaxo Institute of Molecular Biology. His research was focused on discovery and characterization of MAP-Kinase phosphatases. Marco’s postdoctoral research was in the laboratory of Prof. JE Dixon where he discovered a highly evolutionary conserved phosphatase and contributed to developing RNAi technology as well as studying signaling in neural axon. During his industry experience, Marco led a number of programs around immuno-oncology, oncology and reproductive biology. He has a track record of successfully driving therapeutic projects resulting in best-in-class and first-in-class therapeutic molecules, starting from target selection up to lead declaration.

DAY 2 (May 19, 2021)

8:30 – 9:00am

Keynote Presentation

9:10 – 10:10am

Finding the best targets and binder combination for bi- or multispecific antibodies

Target discovery past, present and future
How to de-risk target selection and accelerate multispecific antibody screening
From bench side to patients, factors to be considered to bring the right biology and ensure developability

Ivan Mascanfroni

Director, Immunology Discovery Sciences
Pandion Therapeutics

Ivan is an immunologist with more than 10 years’ experience in autoimmune diseases. Following the completion of his PhD studies he joined the Center for Neurologic Diseases at Brigham and Women’s Hospital where he studied the factors that control T cell activation and polarization by Dendritic Cells relevant for the pathologic processes involved in Multiple Sclerosis and Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD). Then he moved to industry and joined AbbVie Biologics, where he built experience in antibody discovery, targeted immunocytokines and conditional biologics engineering. He helped to establish the targeted and conditional biologics platform and successfully led programs into clinical development. Currently, at Pandion Therapeutics he is interested in tissue-targeted delivery of therapeutics for treatment of autoimmune diseases such as T1D, Vitiligo and IBD.

10:10 – 11:00am

BREAK

11:00 – 11:30am

1-2-1 Meetings

11:30am – 12:00pm

1-2-1 Meetings

12:00 – 1:00pm

BREAK

1:00 – 1:30pm

Poster Session Emerging Technologies topic Accelerating antibody discovery with a modern informatics solution

Benchling

Antibody discovery is now more complex than ever. Organizations today have access to multiple antibody discovery platforms such as hybridoma and phage display, are developing an increasingly diverse set of antibody formats, and are trying to comprehensively characterize their candidates with multiple orthogonal techniques. There is need for a modern informatics solution that can map the entire process end-to-end, aggregate data across experiments and instruments quickly, and provide meaningful insights to make critical program-level decisions. This poster presentation will highlight some of the critical considerations in evaluating an informatics solution to accelerate antibody discovery.

1:40 – 2:40pm

How to select the right target or
the right combination of targets

Available platforms for target identification
How to identify target combinations that are unexpected and innovative
How to validate/de-risk target combinations prior to initiating discovery campaigns

Tommy White

Associate Director, Discovery Research
Alexion Pharmaceuticals

Tommy White leads all antibody discovery efforts at Alexion where he has established in-house antibody discovery capabilities and manages the protein expression facility supporting Discovery Research. Prior to Alexion, Tommy was the second hire of the Biologics group at the Tri-Institutional Therapeutics Discovery Institute where he worked on over 50 different exploratory and therapeutic discovery programs and was key contributor on several assets licensed by external parties. He has a Ph.D. in Chemical Biology from Stevens Institute of Technology and postdoctoral training from Albert Einstein College of Medicine.

2:40 – 2:45pm

Closing Address

Lead Identification & Optimization

Time

Titles and Bullets

Facilitator

DAY 1 (May 17, 2021)

8:30 – 9:00am

9:10 – 10:10am

Binding Analysis: What elements are critical and how much information is enough for lead identification/validation?

How do you choose between candidates if they all have “good” Kd’s?
Does it matter if I measure my Kd’s at 4, 20, or 37 C?
How will the interaction take place in vivo and what factors contribute?
How do you ensure reproducibility of data?

Thomas Glass

Senior Scientist
Sapidyne Instruments

Thomas Glass is a co-founder of Sapidyne Instruments Inc. where his present position is Senior Scientist. He is a co-inventor of the KinExA technology which underlies their successful line of KinExA instruments used in characterizing the binding constants of reversible interactions including receptor-ligand, antibody-antigen etc. His undergraduate training is in Physics and his interest in measurements and instrumentation lead him through a Masters degree in Optics and a PhD thesis centered on environmental immunoassay. He actively supports development of new and improved binding measurement techniques centered on KinExA’s core interest of accurate binding constant measurement.

10:10 – 11:00am

BREAK

11:00 – 11:30am

1-2-1 Meetings

11:30 – 12:00pm

1-2-1 Meetings

12:00 – 1:00pm

BREAK

1:00 – 1:30pm

1-2-1 Meetings

1:40 – 2:40pm

Tolerable versus perilous risks when accelerating timelines to IND

What are opportunities to accelerate the development of biologics without adding significant risk?
Which preclinical assessments should be done sequentially, and which ones can afford to be done in parallel?
What are key de-risking activities for accelerated programs?
What are “surprises” that happen more often than one might expect?!

Marc Damelin

Vice President, Biology
Mersana Therapeutics

Marc Damelin was recently appointed Vice President of Biology, having been Senior Director and Head of Biology at Mersana Therapeutics, where he is focused on ADC discovery and development for oncology. Prior, he spent 10 years at Pfizer, where he led ADC project teams, oversaw the ADC portfolio and mentored two postdoctoral fellows. He is the Editor of “Innovations for Next-Generation ADCs,” a volume to be published by Springer in 2018. Marc received his Ph.D. in Biophysics from Harvard University and was a Postdoctoral Fellow of the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation at Columbia University.

DAY 2 (May 19, 2021)

8:30 – 9:00am

Keynote Presentation

9:10 – 10:10am

Improving developability for lead optimization

Defining critical attributes
Liability analysis: in silico vs. experimental characterization
When and how to triage potential leads
Engineering alternatives

Horacio Nastri

Senior Director,
Antibody Biotherapeutics
Incyte Pharmaceuticals

Horacio Nastri is currently the Executive Director of Antibody Discovery at Incyte Corp. His group is responsible for end to end discovery and engineering of monoclonal and bispecific antibodies for oncology applications. His group uses both immunization as well as display approaches for the generation of lead molecules, which are further optimized by a combination of in vitro and in silico approaches.
Horacio started his career in the antibody field at Dyax Corp where he developed and co-invented key technologies utilized to build the Dyax Fab libraries. He then headed the Antibody Technologies group at EMD Serono where he implemented new approaches for selecting antibodies by single cell B-cloning and Phage Display. He became an Inventor of Avelumab, a clinical approved anti PD-L1 antibody.
He joined Pfizer CTI as a Biotherapeutic site head in NYC where he collaborated with local academic leaders to enable and advance novel therapeutic programs.
During his career Horacio became an inventor of multiple antibody therapeutic molecules and antibody discovery enable technologies while participate in a number of projects advancing to IND applications.

10:20 – 11:00am

BREAK

11:00 – 11:30am

1-2-1 Meetings

11:30am – 12:00pm

1-2-1 Meetings

12:00 – 1:00pm

BREAK

1:00 – 1:30pm

Poster Session: RAMP™ The integration of affinity maturation and developability

Fusion Antibodies

Affinity Maturation platforms, whilst commonly in use for the optimisation of antibody sequences in pre-clinical development often come with the risk of introduction of additional development liabilities into the molecule. Fusion Antibodies Rational Affinity Maturation Platform (RAMP) addresses this with a unique approach. Antibody sequences are scanned for predicted sites of somatic hypermutation within CDRs and the entire variable framework region. These variant libraries, often in excess of 10^20 possible variants, are systematically scanned using an in silico docking model of antibody and antigen. The contribution of the individual and combined mutations are then ranked. The top 95 variants are expressed as full IgG in CHO cells for evaluation of affinity and other developability parameters. Results will be shown demonstrating variants with improved affinity vs WT alongside other characteristics such as expression level, monodispersity and even immunogenicity.

1:40 – 2:40pm

Biophysical and biochemical strategies for lead selection and optimization that provide improved manufacturability

Manufacturability challenges that matter most and may be mitigated in advance during lead selection and optimization
Costs and risks for mitigating manufacturing challenges during lead selection and optimization, compared to dealing them in development
Optimizing the biophysical and biochemical screening tree and re-engineering protein therapeutics to most efficiently improve manufacturability
In silico methods for lead selection and optimization

Michael Doyle

Director, Biotherapeutics Protein Science
Bristol-Myers Squibb

Michael Doyle is Director of Discovery Biotherapeutics Bioanalytics at Bristol Myers Squibb, where he oversees biophysical, biochemical, and developability screening assessments of biotherapeutic candidates from idea to early development. He has over 25 years of drug discovery experience in biophysical characterization of protein therapeutics and targets. He has personally led the protein chemistry efforts for both antibody and non-antibody protein therapetics from early discovery to early clinical development. His current interest lies in optimization of strategies for selecting lead biotherapeutic molecules having the most developable profiles to advance to early development. Michael has published over 80 articles in the area of protein biophysical characterization.

2:40 – 2:45pm

Closing Address

Formats & Scaffolds

Time

Titles and Bullets

Facilitator

DAY 1 (May 17, 2021)

8:30am – 9:00am

9:10 – 10:10am

Nonclinical immunogenicity mitigation strategies

What are the causes of unwanted immunogenicity?
Tools for early immunogenicity assessment
Immunogenicity of new modalities and complex formats
How to use the data of early immunogenicity assessment?
Regulatory considerations

Sofie Pattijn

Founder & Chief Technology Officer
ImmunXperts

Sofie Pattijn has over 20 years of experience in the field of immunogenicity assessment (vaccines and biotherapeutics) and in vitro assay development with a focus on functional assays for immunogenicity, immune oncology and Cell and Gene Therapy products. She has extensive hands-on lab experience and has managed and coached several In Vitro teams over the last decade. From 2008 till 2013 she was Head of the In Vitro Immunogenicity group at AlgoNomics (Ghent, Belgium) and Lonza Applied Protein Services (Cambridge, UK). Prior to that, she worked at Innogenetics, Belgium for over 15 years.

10:10 – 11:00am

BREAK

11:00 – 11:30am

1-2-1 Meetings

11:30am – 12:00Pm

1-2-1 Meetings

12:00 – 1:00pm

BREAK

1:00 – 1:30pm

1-2-1 Meetings

1:40 – 2:40pm

Improving binding affinity of Fc regions to optimise therapeutic activity

Fc engineering for modulating FcgR binding affinity
Fc engineering for modulating C1q binding affinity
Fc engineering for modulating FcRn binding affinity
Immunogenicity and developability consideration for Fc engineering

Anna Park

Head of Protein Engineering, US Biologics Research
Sanofi

Anna Park is a Distinguished Scientist and Head of Protein Engineering group in Large Molecular Research Platform department at Sanofi, located in Framingham, MA. She has been involved in 20+ discovery and early development therapeutic antibody/enzyme programs, including bi- or multi-specific antibodies, PEGylation and antibody-toxin conjugation and ERT (Enzyme Replacement Therapy) products. Anna received her PhD in Medicinal Chemistry at University of Washington and completed her postdoctoral training in the Department of Cell Biology at Albert Einstein College of Medicine.

DAY 2 (May 19, 2021)

8:30 – 9:00am

Keynote Presentation

9:10 – 10:10pm

Use of single domain antibodies to build bispecifics and multifunctional therapeutics

Discovery of single domain antibodies: Llama, Alpaca, library based discovery
Bispecific Formats with single domain antibodies: Fc fusions, IgG-VHH fusions and Tandem VHH
Developability of single domain antibodies: PK, stability and immunogenicity

Nimish Gera

Head of Biologics
Mythic Therapeutics

Nimish Gera is the Head of Biologics at Mythic Therapeutics leading multiple projects to engineer and develop novel antibody and antibody-based drugs in oncology and immuno-oncology. Prior to Mythic, Nimish has over ten years of experience in antibody and protein engineering with five years leading bispecific antibody programs in several disease areas such as rare diseases, oncology and immunology at Alexion Pharmaceuticals and Oncobiologics. Nimish received his PhD degree in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering from North Carolina State University and a B.Tech degree in Chemical Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati.

10:10 – 11:00am

BREAK

11:00 – 11:30am

1-2-1 Meetings

11:30am – 12:00pm

1-2-1 Meetings

12:00 – 1:00pm

BREAK

1:00 – 1:30pm

Poster Session: Nonclinical immunogenicity mitigation strategies

ImmunXperts

New mAbs or agents with other structures have revolutionized treatment options for several diseases and malignancies in the past few years, and more are currently being evaluated in the clinic. The development of new therapeutics comes with a series of challenges and questions, of which one is the risk for unwanted immunogenicity which can lead to decreased efficacy and safety concerns.
Today, both in silico and in vitro preclinical tools are available to identify early on therapeutic candidates with a high immunogenicity risk potential. Additionally, certain tools can be used to mitigate the immunogenicity potential, and thus improve and accelerate therapeutic drug development and reduce the number of clinical failures.

1:40 – 2:40pm

Building multi-functional molecules to target specific pharmacological needs

Tackling the balance of potency across the molecule for expanded target options. Can valency in a molecule provide an advantage?
What strategy do you prefer for demonstrating dual binding of a multifunctional molecule? Are there specific analytical tests that are critical early in screening?
How to address heterogeneity in complex molecule evaluation. What unique challenges arise from multifunctionality in the molecule?
What is the impact of linker choice? On developability? On PK? Do specific linkers work better with certain formats?

Angela Norton

Vice President, Research & Development
Dynamicure

Angela Norton is Vice President R&D at DynamiCure Biotechnology where she leads multiple programs, designing novel biologics for immuno-oncology and autoimmune disorders. Angela has more than 18 years of industrial research and development experience spanning various therapeutic areas in rare disease research. Prior to joining DynamiCure, Angela was Head of Protein and Antibody Engineering at Shire, where she was responsible for functional and program leadership from target validation to clinical stages for all biologic programs within the global organization. Angela earned her PhD in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from the University of New Hampshire

2:40 – 2:45pm

Closing Address

Antibody Strategies Driving Cell Therapies

Time

Titles and Bullets

Facilitator

DAY 1 (May 17, 2021)

8:30am – 9:00am

9:10 – 10:10am

Emerging Technologies Topic Pragmatic candidate triage: Ideal workflows for antibody discovery

What properties should be evaluated during the first stages of discovery?
What strategies do you take for both in vitro and in vivo workflows to push functional screening earlier in the screening paradigm?
How do you optimize and balance throughput and characterization depth
How to extract the most information within a multi-dimensional data landscape

Colby Souders

Chief Scientific Officer
Abveris

Colby provides scientific leadership for the team to guide decisions and develop innovative strategies for the successful delivery of each unique project. Before Abveris, he graduated with a Ph. D. in Cell and Molecular Biology from Texas A&M and directed antibody discovery and engineering programs at both MassBiologics of the University of Massachusetts Medical School and Kanyos Bio.

10:10 – 11:00am

BREAK

11:00 – 11:30am

1-2-1 Meetings

11:30am – 12:00pm

1-2-1 Meetings

11:30am – 1:00pm

BREAK

1:00 – 1:30pm

1-2-1 Meetings

1:40 – 2:40pm

T cell engagers versus CAR T cells: what is the best modality for T cell redirection?

What considerations should be taken into account for selecting a T cell engager vs. a CAR-T cell based approach? What are key criteria for selecting modality
What are the pros and cons of either modality from both an efficacy and safety perspective?
What antibody parameters should be considered when selecting an antigen target for either modality? Antibody affinity? Epitope? Internalization rate?
How can we further optimize these modalities to ablate both liquid and solid tumors with improved efficacy and safety profiles?

Gadi Bornstein

Senior Director, External Innovation
Johnson & Johnson

Gadi Bornstein is a member of the External Innovation Team within Discovery, Product
Development & Supply (DPDS) at the Johnson & Johnson Innovation Center in Boston.
As a senior member of the global External Innovation Team, Gadi has overall strategic and
operational responsibility for scouting and evaluation of external opportunities across all
biologic drug modalities.
Gadi has over twenty years of experience in oncology R&D with an emphasis in preclinical
antibody discovery. He has led academic alliances as well as industry partnerships
throughout his career. Prior to joining Janssen, Gadi was a Senior Director at TESARO, where
he led and directed biologics discovery efforts in immuno-oncology. Before TESARO, Gadi
held roles of increasing responsibility at Amgen Fremont Inc. (formerly Abgenix Inc.),
AstraZeneca, Pfizer, and Novartis.
Gadi received his B.S. in biochemistry from the University of California, Davis and his Ph.D.
in biochemistry from the University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine. He
completed his postdoctoral training at Stanford University in the Division of Immunology and
Rheumatology. He has authored numerous research papers, reviews, as well as book
chapters, and is a co-inventor on multiple patents.

DAY 2 (May 19, 2021)

8:30 – 9:00am

Keynote Presentation

9:10 – 10:10am

Combining biologics with CAR-Ts: improving efficacy, minimizing toxicity

• Antigen escape is one mechanism by which cancers evade CAR-T therapies. How could bispecific antibodies be used to prevent antigen escape? What are the advantages/disadvantages of using a CAR-T and T cell bispecific (TCB), versus a single CAR-T targeted against two antigens, or two CAR-Ts, each targeted to different antigens, or two TCBs?
• How would combinations affect the toxicity profiles of CAR-Ts and TCBs? Would there be negative or positive synergy?
• CAR-T persistence varies substantially between patients and is associated with lack of response and partial response. How could bispecific antibodies be used to increase the persistence of CAR-Ts?
• How could the engineered nature of CAR-Ts be leveraged? What kind of bioorthogonal antibodies could be used, and how, to modulate CAR-T activation, proliferation, engraftment and persistence?
• How could antibodies be used to reduce CAR-T toxicity? Could bispecific antibodies be used to direct immunosuppressive cells, for example Treg cells, to counteract excessive and undesirable inflammation, for example at peripheral nerves, or at CNS sinuses?

Kostadin Petrov

Senior Scientist
GO Therapeutics

Kostadin Petrov is a Senior Scientist at GO Therapeutics, which develops TCBs and CAR-Ts for treatment of solid tumors with aberrant, cancer-specific glycosylation; at GO, he splits his time between the bench and office, heading cell biology, leading in vitro evaluation of therapeutic candidates, and contributing to business development. Kostadin received his PhD in cell biology from Harvard University, where he studied the biochemistry and cell biology of Hedgehog signaling. He has been learning how to play the accordion, with reasonable success.

10:10 – 11:00am

BREAK

11:00 – 11:30am

1-2-1 Meetings

11:30am – 12:00pm

1-2-1 Meetings

12:00 – 1:00pm

BREAK

1:00 – 1:30pm

No Session

1:40 – 2:40pm

How do we choose chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) binders that specifically recognize antigens in solid tumors?

How do we generate and prioritize binders for CAR-T therapeutics?
What are the key attributes of CAR-T/CAR-NK binders?
What stage should we assess off-target binding of our binders?
When and how we should do developability assessment for binders ?

Sarav Narayanan

Senior Scientist
Takeda

Sarav Narayanan is currently leading cell therapy programs at Takeda, supporting binder strategy, characterization and developability. His expertise in protein analytics and antibody discovery combined with years of experience in supporting immunology research impacts Takeda’s Immuno-oncology programs. Prior to joining Takeda, Sarav was a scientist at biologics drug discovery group at Biogen and led Immunology research programs. He successfully transitioned molecules to development, out-licensed to partners and to clinic. Sarav Narayanan received PhD in biochemistry from TU-Munich, Germany and completed his postdoctoral research in the field of membrane protein biochemistry as a Harvard-Lefler postdoctoral fellow at Harvard Medical School.

2:40 – 2:45pm

Closing Address

Emerging Technologies

Time

Titles and Bullets

Facilitator

DAY 1 (May 17, 2021)

8:30am – 9:00am

9:10 – 10:10am

Next-generation antibody discovery platforms – challenges and opportunities

Beyond binding and functional properties, what are the key considerations during primary discovery activities?
What are the bottlenecks in discovery pipelines?
What are the most challenging selection criteria to work with?
What the pros/cons of 1) display based approaches, 2) natural immune systems, 3) in silico generated antibodies?
Targets and modalities — What are the most productive strategies to identify lead molecules for next generation biologics?
Attrition, a good thing or bad?

Kevin Heyries

Co-founder & Head of Business Development
AbCellera

Kevin is a co-founder and leads AbCellera’s business development activities and key strategic partnerships with pharmas, biotechs, and VCs. He also manages program design, negotiations, and alliances. Kevin has over 10 years of R&D and translational research experience working in the field of microfluidics, single-cell analysis and biologics. Before co-founding AbCellera, Kevin was conducting post-doctoral research at the University of British Columbia where he focused on the development of high-sensitivity microfluidic digital PCR for genetic testing devices that was the basis for a commercial product. Kevin has a PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Lyon and an MSc in Organic Chemistry/Biology from the University of Grenoble.

10:10 – 11:00am

BREAK

11:00 – 11:30am

1-2-1 Meetings

11:30am – 12:00pm

1-2-1 Meetings

12:00 – 1:00pm

BREAK

1:00 – 1:30pm

1-2-1 Meetings

1:40 – 2:40pm

How to design for improved PK properties: Which in silico & in vitro technologies should be used?

What early stage assays and calculations should be run to triage hits with poor PK properties?
What are the challenges in using in silico or in vitro readouts to design for low clearance?
How best to use Modeling & Simulation in biologics discovery?
Can public and private data be leveraged for data analytics and PK prediction?

Vanita Sood

Global Head of Drug Disposition & Design
EMD Serono

Vanita Sood is the Global Head of Drug Disposition & Design (3D) at EMD Serono (a subsidiary of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany). Trained as a computational structural biologist, she has contributed in various roles in pharmaceutical drug discovery, including an inventorship contribution to Bavencio® (Avelumab), a checkpoint inhibitor. 3D focuses on the use of structural, computational and DMPK approaches to ensure the design of drug-like properties in discovery candidates, with the needs of the patient in mind. The optimization of potency, selectivity, and half-life is accomplished using a multitude of scientific approaches. Her department incorporates innovation into their daily work, and has most recently focused on the use of data science and artificial intelligence/machine learning/generative models, in conjunction with increases in automation and experimental advances to enhance the drug discovery process.

DAY 2 (May 19, 2021)

8:30 – 9:00am

Keynote Presentation

9:10 – 10:10am

Using machine learning to accelerate antibody discovery and engineering

What are the most promising opportunities and applications of machine learning in antibody discovery and engineering?
What has been demonstrated? How much do they improve our speed and probability of success?
What shortcomings and lessons have been learned from early attempts/efforts?
What obstacles are we facing? Do we have challenges in common? What can be done?

Maria Wendt

Head of Biologics Research
Sanofi

Maria Wendt is Head of Biologics Research US and Global Head Digital Biologics Platform (ML/AI), Large Molecule Research at Sanofi.. She has spent the last 20 years at the interface of computation and biology. At Sanofi, she oversees the biologics discovery and innovation portfolio in the US. Modalities focus on antibodies, including state of the art bispecific and multispecific platforms. She also leads the global organization working on foundational digital tools and computational innovation. Prior to this she was Head of Science of Genedata AG, a global informatics software and consulting firm for the life sciences, based in Basel Switzerland. She was founding principal scientist of Genedata Biologics® and Genedata Bioprocess®, enterprise platforms supporting end-to-end biologics research and development processes, employed by the majority of top biopharmaceutical organizations worldwide. She earned a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering at Iowa State University.

10:10 – 11:00am

BREAK

11:00 – 11:30am

1-2-1 Meetings

11:30am – 12:00pm

1-2-1 Meetings

12:00 – 1:00pm

BREAK

1:00 – 1:30pm

Poster Session Accelerated discovery of functionally relevant antibodies leveraging broadened epitopic diversity and single B-cell screening

Abveris

Rapid, efficient discovery of monoclonal antibodies against traditionally difficult targets, including cell surface receptors with complex specificity and functionality requirements
The advantages of genetically modified hyperimmune mouse models for expanded epitopic coverage – better chance of finding cross-reactive, active mAbs
The advantages of Beacon-based single B cell workflow – throughput, screening resolution, and speed
A case study highlighting rapid antibody discovery against a cell surface receptor for which functional activity was paramount to success

1:40 – 2:40pm

Delivery of biologics by gene therapy – bypassing production in cell lines

The different delivery approaches
The advantages and the inconveniences
The format adaptation – new biochemistry constraint
The management of posttranslational modifications: Fc glycosylation
The influence of the cell type producing the IgG on immunogenicity
How to address mAbs advanced therapies ( bi-, cocktails…)

Joel Cohen-Solal

Principal Research Scientist
Abbvie

Joel earned his PhD in Herve Fridman’s Lab at the Curie Institute (Paris FR) studying Fc gamma receptor glycosylation and FcγRIIB ectopic expression by metastatic melanoma. For postdoctoral training, he joined Betty Diamond’s Lab at Einstein School of Medicine (Bronx, NY) and then Columbia University (NYC, NY) where he studied how sex hormones promote the break of B cell tolerance in lupus. In 2015, he joined Abbvie as Sr Scientist, working on Fc-Fc Receptors biology.

2:40 – 2:45pm

Closing Address

Antibody Therapeutics Xchange East Coast 2021May 17 & 19

Target Selection

Partners

Antibody Therapeutics Xchange
East Coast 2021
May 17 & 19