Antibody Therapeutics Xchange
West Coast
SEPTEMBER 20, 2021
SAN fRANCISCO
Welcome to hubXchange’s West 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
Opening Address & Keynote Presentation: DNA Aptamers as a Promising Alternative for Analytical and Therapeutic Applications
Adjunct Scientist & Professor of Physics
Sapidyne Instruments & Boise State University
Daniel’s research interests are focused on biophysical characterization of molecular interactions, transport of ions and molecules through artificial and natural membrane systems, and investigations on ligand-membrane interactions. Such fundamental processes are essential components of the molecular machineries responsible for cell functionality in health and disease. Understanding, harnessing and controlling these biological aspects is anticipated to open novel avenues for development of drugs, artificial carriers for targeted and controlled drug delivery at precise locations in the human body, and adjuvant therapy strategies intended to prevent and mitigate bacterial and viral infections.
- Do two targets which have been successful with a monoclonal approach as combination therapy make good targets for a bispecific- What considerations are critical ? Has this approach been successful?
- What factors need to be considered when targets are expressed on the same cell vs. two different cells ? how do they differ? How is affinity and avidity
- Can bispecific antibodies sensitively and specifically target mutant peptide–HLA complexes
Vice President, Biotherapeutics
Exelixis
- Rapid discover of large libraries for disease neutralization
- Overcoming limitations in screening infectious patients
- The role of engineered synthetic tissues in generating high-potency novel antibodies with low-nanomolar binding affinities as well as antibodies with high sequence similarity to virus-neutralizing antibodies
Chief Executive Officer & Founder
Prellis Biologics
Melanie Matheu is a research scientist turned entrepreneur with cross-disciplinary experience in Immunology, Chemistry, Biophysics, Molecular Biology, and Protein Engineering with a specialty (>15 years) in 2-photon imaging of immune responses,
In her career she has filed 12 patents, worked on 2 immunotherapeutics, covered biotechnology companies for investors for over 20 years, and served as the youngest member on the SAB of a companion animal medicine company. Her first patent work was at the age of 19 in the field of synthetic organic chemistry.
Two compounds vetted in her PhD research entered and completed positive FDA trials with positive Phase IIb results, and one FDA approved and acquired by Celgene. She is a published expert in immune cell interactions in tissues, and have contributed novel mathematical methods of cell movement analysis to the field based in Bayesian modeling and euclidean geometry. This work was recognized in publications and with an award from the International Society of Bayesian Analysis.
- What is your strategy? Independent inhibition of targets, synergistic binding, generate novel action?
- Can it be achieved by a combination of traditional mAbs?
- Do you have a discovery strategy that will find the binders you need?
- How will you screen for optimal binder combinations?
- Do you have a choice of platforms? If so, how will you choose?
Head of Discovery
Invenra
Jonathan Davis is Vice President of Innovation and Strategy at Invenra, where he brings over 20 years of experience in industry, focused on innovative protein and antibody engineering, bispecific and multispecific antibody platform development, and drug discovery in a wide range of therapeutic areas. Prior to joining Invenra, Dr. Davis has held positions at Bristol-Myers Squibb, where he worked on all aspects of biologic drug design, including successfully designing a trispecific HIV biotherapeutic, and EMD Serono, where he developed novel biologic drug platforms. Previous to his industry jobs, Dr. Davis was a post-doctoral fellow at Harvard Medical School, and earned a Ph.D. in Biophysics from Univ. of Cal. San Francisco and a bachelor’s degrees in music and cello from Reed College and San Francisco Conservatory of Music.
2:30 – 3:00pm
Poster Session: Rapid human antibody discovery with Prellis Biologics’ Externalized Immune System platform (EXIS™)
Discover a large library of antibodies to neutralize diseases in just 20 days with Prellis Biologics’ Externalized Immune System platform (EXIS™). Using EXIS™, we have identified antibodies to neutralize SARS-CoV-2, Influenza-A, Marburg Hemorrhagic Fever, PDL1, and NLP1. This platform can bring you hundreds of high-quality, fully human novel antibodies that bind to pathogens, cancer, and autoimmune disease target proteins.
EXIS™ antibodies are IgG antibodies that exhibit class-switched recombination and somatic hypermutation. EXIS™ technology generates high-potency novel antibodies with low-nanomolar binding affinities as well as antibodies with high sequence similarity to virus-neutralizing antibodies that typically require screening of hundreds of human patients.
As companion technology to EXIS™, Prellis has developed the Antibody Finder algorithm which leverages the nature of whole tissue development of B cells into high affinity clonal pools. Antibody Finder yields a 4x-increase in identification of high affinity antibodies relative to traditional single cell sequencing analysis.
Antibody discovery typically requires 9-12 months in animal models. EXIS™ reduces discovery time of therapeutic-quality fully human antibodies to less than 3 weeks.
Chief Executive Officer & Founder
Prellis Biologics
Melanie Matheu is a research scientist turned entrepreneur with cross-disciplinary experience in Immunology, Chemistry, Biophysics, Molecular Biology, and Protein Engineering with a specialty (>15 years) in 2-photon imaging of immune responses,
In her career she has filed 12 patents, worked on 2 immunotherapeutics, covered biotechnology companies for investors for over 20 years, and served as the youngest member on the SAB of a companion animal medicine company. Her first patent work was at the age of 19 in the field of synthetic organic chemistry.
Two compounds vetted in her PhD research entered and completed positive FDA trials with positive Phase IIb results, and one FDA approved and acquired by Celgene. She is a published expert in immune cell interactions in tissues, and have contributed novel mathematical methods of cell movement analysis to the field based in Bayesian modeling and euclidean geometry. This work was recognized in publications and with an award from the International Society of Bayesian Analysis.
4:10 – 5:10pm
- Antibody discovery to GPCRs, challenges with this target class
- GPCR immunization strategies
- What worked, what didn’t-ish
- CRO partner experience
Director, Antibody Discovery
Xencor
James started his career in 2001 at Immgenics in Vancouver B.C. specializing in antibody discovery using the SLAM (Selected lymphocyte Antibody Method) discovery platform. Following the acquisition by Abgenix, James applied SLAM to XenoMouse (one of the first transgenic mouse strains producing fully human antibodies). James joined Cell Signaling Technologies in Danvers MA in 2004, expanding their internal capabilities with new technology such as a novel antibody discovery platform that combines Mass Spectrometry and Next Generation Sequencing.
James then moved to Gilead Sciences in Foster City CA in 2016 where he led several therapeutic antibody discovery projects before moving to his current role of Director of Antibody Discovery at Xencor in Monrovia CA.
Lead Identification & Optimization
Adjunct Scientist & Professor of Physics
Sapidyne Instruments & Boise State University
Daniel’s research interests are focused on biophysical characterization of molecular interactions, transport of ions and molecules through artificial and natural membrane systems, and investigations on ligand-membrane interactions. Such fundamental processes are essential components of the molecular machineries responsible for cell functionality in health and disease. Understanding, harnessing and controlling these biological aspects is anticipated to open novel avenues for development of drugs, artificial carriers for targeted and controlled drug delivery at precise locations in the human body, and adjuvant therapy strategies intended to prevent and mitigate bacterial and viral infections
- Optimization before or after bispecific engineering
- Screening strategies for identifying developable bispecific formats?
- Impact of asymmetric Fc engineering on the bispecific antibodies?
Senior Director, Antibody Discovery & Engineering
TrueBinding
Pallavi Tawde is Senior Director, Antibody Discover & Engineering at TrueBinding where she leads discovery of next generation bio-therapeutics for Oncology, Immuno-Oncology, Fibrosis, Auto-Immune and Metabolic disorders. Prior to this Pallavi was Head of Antibody Discovery at Denali Therapeutics which followed several scientist roles at Bristol-Myers Squibb and Pfizer. She was also a post-doctoral scientist at the Seattle Biomedical Research Institute focusing on HIV vaccines and Hepatitis B co-infection. Pallavi has an M.S. and Ph.D from Florida State University.
- 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?
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.
- Optimization before or after bispecific engineering
- Screening strategies for identifying developable bispecific formats?
- Impact of asymmetric Fc engineering on the bispecific antibodies?
Associate Director, Antibody Engineering & Discovery
Denali Therapeutics
Prior to joining Denali Therapeutics, Lu Shan has had extensive experience as a Senior Scientist at AstraZeneca and Lexicon Pharmaceuticals leading projects for multiple therapeutic areas from target validation to candidate drug status through collaboration with stakeholders in target biology, DMPK, toxicology, translational medicine and clinical research. Lu has a PhD from Stanford University in Chemical Engineering & Biochemistry and a BS in Chemistry, Computer Science & Math from Lipscomb University.
2:30 – 3:00pm
Poster Session: Writing the future of biologics using the Twist Biopharma library of libraries
Utilizing its proprietary DNA technology to write synthetic libraries, Twist Biopharma provides end-to-end antibody discovery libraries including both (1) highly diverse synthetic naïve antibody phage display libraries and (2) target class specific antibody phage display libraries against difficult-to-drug targets. In this talk, Aaron Sato, CSO, will present several POC data on each member of their Library of Libraries. For some of the targets, the power of selecting multiple libraries against each target will be highlighted.
Chief Scientific Officer
Twist Biopharma
Aaron is Chief Scientific Officer of the Biopharma Vertical at Twist Bioscience. Prior to Twist, he served as Chief Scientific Officer of LakePharma, leading the California Antibody Center, which discovers novel antibody therapeutics for its clients. He also oversaw all discovery research functions both as Vice President of Protein Sciences at Surrozen, and previously, as Vice President of Research at Sutro Biopharma, Inc. He also held director level positions at both Oncomed and Dyax Corp.
- How does one set key criteria for function and developability to yield high quality lead candidates?
- How does final antibody format and mechanism of action impact lead selection criteria (multivalent, ADC, TCE, etc)?
- What are early measurements of antibody developability that can be employed in selection of antibody leads?
- How does one achieve the right balance between biological activity and protein developability in early lead selection?
Vice President, Discovery
TeneoBio
Katherine Harris has followed her entrepreneurial spirit to work at start-up stage companies where
she has thrived in fast-paced work environments, building high-performance teams and processes in the early phases of company formation and growth.
Katherine is currently the Vice President of Discovery at Teneobio, a multi-specific biotherapeutic antibody company redirecting the immune system to fight cancer. She joined Teneobio when the company started lab operations in 2015, playing a key role in both building and managing a high-throughput antibody discovery platform.
Prior to her work at Teneobio, she was a research scientist at Active Motif and SwitchGear Genomics where she focused her efforts on developing a functional genomics platform for small molecule screening.
Katherine holds a Ph.D. in Molecular and Cell Biology from the University of California, Berkeley.
Formats & Scaffolds
Adjunct Scientist & Professor of Physics
Sapidyne Instruments & Boise State University
Daniel’s research interests are focused on biophysical characterization of molecular interactions, transport of ions and molecules through artificial and natural membrane systems, and investigations on ligand-membrane interactions. Such fundamental processes are essential components of the molecular machineries responsible for cell functionality in health and disease. Understanding, harnessing and controlling these biological aspects is anticipated to open novel avenues for development of drugs, artificial carriers for targeted and controlled drug delivery at precise locations in the human body, and adjuvant therapy strategies intended to prevent and mitigate bacterial and viral infections.
- Dimensions and reaches of antibody and multispecific therapeutics
- Epitope location and their impact on co-engagement
- Flexible vs structured-linkers
Senior Director, Head of Protein Engineering
CytomX Therapeutics
Madan Paidhungat is Sr. Director and Head of Protein Engineering at CytomX Therapeutics, Inc., where he is engaged in developing activatable antibody-based therapeutics. His career has focused on developing and leveraging novel in-vitro-evolution based technologies for therapeutics R&D. Before CytomX, Madan was Director, Biology at Dice Molecules, LLC where he directed biology and informatics to establish a DNA-programmed combinatorial chemistry platform for small-molecule discovery. Prior to that he spent over 12 years at Maxygen Inc., Perseid LLC, and Astellas Inc. applying DNA shuffling to the development of protein-, antibody-, and bi-specific therapeutics.
- 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
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.
Bispecifics with versatile therapeutic MoA using modular single domain antibodies
- The unique physicochemical and pharmacological properties of single domain (VHH) antibodies led to the developed of next-generation bispecifics.
- VHH modules are integral for the design of bispecifics with versatile therapeutic mechanism of actions such as Immune cell engagers, tissue specific delivery of biologics etc.,
Senior Director & Head Antibody Discovery & Protein Engineering
Alector
Raj Ganesan received his Ph.D. at the University of Zurich, Switzerland. Raj is a Protein/Antibody engineer with extensive industry experience (Genentech, AstraZeneca, Boehringer Ingelheim and Janssen) in the Discovery and Development of Molecular and Cellular therapeutics. Since 2021, Raj is leading the Biologics Discovery efforts at Alector.
2:30 – 3:00pm
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.
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.
Unlocking the potential of protein therapeutics co-formulation
- Co-formulation can be used to develop product portfolio and extend IP for existing products. Can improved stability or protective effects be also utilized to develop IP ? What are the other benefits of co-formulation strategy ?
- Is co-formulation on a path to become a proven strategy to deliver several therapeutics at once ? In what therapeutic areas ?
- What are the main challenges faced by implementing a co-formulation strategy?
Director, Formulation & Product Development
NGM Biosciences
George Svitel is Director of Formulation and Product Development at NGM Biopharmaceuticals. Prior to NGM he worked at Merck, Amgen and National Institutes of Health. His work focuses on several aspects of therapeutic protein development including co-formulation, controlling aggregation and particulation, and using biophysical methods in pharmaceutical development.
Antibody Strategies Driving Cell Therapies
Opening Address & Keynote Presentation: DNA Aptamers as a Promising Alternative for Analytical and Therapeutic Applications
Adjunct Scientist & Professor of Physics
Sapidyne Instruments & Boise State University
Daniel’s research interests are focused on biophysical characterization of molecular interactions, transport of ions and molecules through artificial and natural membrane systems, and investigations on ligand-membrane interactions. Such fundamental processes are essential components of the molecular machineries responsible for cell functionality in health and disease. Understanding, harnessing and controlling these biological aspects is anticipated to open novel avenues for development of drugs, artificial carriers for targeted and controlled drug delivery at precise locations in the human body, and adjuvant therapy strategies intended to prevent and mitigate bacterial and viral infections.
T cell engagers versus CAR T cells: what is the best modality for T cell redirection?
- Ability to drive immunological memory
- Comparison of clinical experience in heme malignancies
- Promise for solid tumor setting
- Safety differences
- Is it really an either/or? Will these modalities have complementary strengths and weaknesses (like cotreatment to prevent resistance)?
Vice President
Alivamab Discovery Services
Jonah Rainey holds a PhD in Biochemistry from Tufts University and completed postdoctoral training at the University of Wisconsin and the Salk Institute. He has engaged in discovery, research, and development of bispecific antibodies for 15 years. He is an inventor on several patents describing novel bispecific platforms and current clinical candidates that exploit these platforms. Jonah contributed to research and early development of multiple clinical candidates in phase 1 and 2, and led many advanced preclinical programs in oncology, infectious disease, autoimmunity, and other therapeutic areas. Previous industry experience includes MacroGenics, MedImmune/AZ, Oriole Biotech and Gritstone Oncology.
Lead Identification & Optimization topic Choosing the right platform for developability optimization
- How to optimize antibody sequence without introducing unnatural mutations?
- How to thoroughly explore natural antibody sequence space around your lead?
- Humanizing and optimizing your lead at the same time – pitfalls?
- How do you exclude potential developability dipeptide motifs from your library?
Chief Scientific Officer
Twist Biopharma
Aaron is Chief Scientific Officer of the Biopharma Vertical at Twist Bioscience. Prior to Twist, he served as Chief Scientific Officer of LakePharma, leading the California Antibody Center, which discovers novel antibody therapeutics for its clients. He also oversaw all discovery research functions both as Vice President of Protein Sciences at Surrozen, and previously, as Vice President of Research at Sutro Biopharma, Inc. He also held director level positions at both Oncomed and Dyax Corp.
Combining bispecifics with CARTs to minimize antigen escape and tumor microenvironment suppression
- Bispecific CARTs versus CART/ Biologics combinations; what are the pros and cons of each approach?
- Does the use of an allogenic versus autologous cell product impact strategy?
- Combination treatments or engineer cells to manufacture a biologic in situ?
- What mechanisms of action beyond T-cell/NK-cell cytotoxicity are considered for enhancing cell therapy efficacy?
- How are efficacy and safety being balanced?
- How are the regulatory and clinical development paths for cell therapy/ biologics
combinations influencing strategy?
Senior Director, Protein Sciences
Kite Pharma
2:30 – 3:00pm
- What are the best murine models to predict efficacy of T cell engagers in mice?
- Primate studies are currently the dominant way to asses toxicity. Are there alternatives?
- How predictive are primate studies?
- Most TCEs do not cross-react with mice. Are there ways to study toxicity of TCEs in mice?
Chief Technology Officer
Amunix
Emerging Technologies
Opening Address & Keynote Presentation: DNA Aptamers as a Promising Alternative for Analytical and Therapeutic Applications
Adjunct Scientist & Professor of Physics
Sapidyne Instruments & Boise State University
Daniel’s research interests are focused on biophysical characterization of molecular interactions, transport of ions and molecules through artificial and natural membrane systems, and investigations on ligand-membrane interactions. Such fundamental processes are essential components of the molecular machineries responsible for cell functionality in health and disease. Understanding, harnessing and controlling these biological aspects is anticipated to open novel avenues for development of drugs, artificial carriers for targeted and controlled drug delivery at precise locations in the human body, and adjuvant therapy strategies intended to prevent and mitigate bacterial and viral infections.
Cross-pollinating synthetic biology, ML/AI, automation, and other high-throughput technologies in antibody discovery
- What are the most productive ways various old and new technologies are being combined today to immediately address key problems in antibody discovery and development?
- What are the problems (and solutions) that are not directly being addressed now but that we are laying the groundwork for now with current efforts?
- What are the outstanding problems that current technologies are not addressing at all, and what are the necessary characteristics of future technologies or datasets to address those problems?
Co-founder & Chief Executive Officer
Abalone Bio
Richard is co-founder and CEO of Abalone Bio, an antibody therapeutics company developing modulators of difficult-to-drug targets that access untapped therapeutic cellular activities. Prior to Abalone Bio, he was Scientific and Operations Director at MBC Biolabs and a Principal at Mission Bay Capital. He also co-founded and was CSO of GPB, an algae biofuel company, during the previous financial crisis. Richard’s background is in systems and synthetic biology, protein structure and engineering, and computational biology. He received a B.A. in Molecular Cell Biology from UC Berkeley and a Ph.D. in Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry from Yale University.
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?
Co-founder & Head of Business Development
AbCellera
Advances in phage displayed synthetic libraries for lead identification and maturation
- How do you build a better synthetic antibody library?
- How do you decide on a panning strategy for your target?
- Thoughts on deep-sequencing based approach for hit identification?
- What are the major bottlenecks in high-throughput antibody discovery workflows using synthetic libraries and how can we address them?
- What is the best strategy to affinity mature a lead?
Group Leader, Antibody Engineering
Alamar Biosciences
Pankaj is a Group Leader of Antibody discovery at Alamar Biosciences, an early stage proteomics company focused on developing high-affinity antibody pairs for plasma proteins. At Alamar, he started the phage-display antibody discovery group and is building a high-throughput discovery workflow using synthetic single-domain antibody libraries to target these proteins. Prior to his current role, he was a Senior Scientist at Twist Biosciences where he played an active role in the design and construction of phage-displayed synthetic libraries using Twist’s DNA synthesis platform. Pankaj has spent majority of his scientific career in designing and building phage-display libraries, identifying leads from these libraires, building automation workflows for high-throughput lead identification and further affinity maturation of leads. He received his PhD in Molecular Genetics in the laboratory of Dr. Sachdev Sidhu from the University of Toronto.
2:30 – 3:00pm
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
Director, Business Development
Abveris
- From primary sequence analysis to 3D modeling: which in-silico technologies show the greatest promise?
- Beyond BVP: which in-vitro assays can complement or exceed the predictive performance of the BVP ELISA? Considerations for non-antibody modalities?
- Combining in-silico and in-vitro technologies: can improved PK predictions be extracted from multi-dimensional datasets?
- Improving PK via in-vitro evolution: which protein display systems and polyspecificity reagents are most effective?
- In-vivo PK studies: how to control for convoluting factors (TMDD, glycosylation, Fc-engineering etc.)?
Director, Protein Therapeutics
Gilead Sciences
Nathan Thomsen is currently a Director in the Protein Therapeutics department at Gilead Sciences Inc. where he leads a functional area focused on large molecule lead optimization and technology/platform development. Before joining Gilead in 2014, Nathan was a Damon Runyon Postdoctoral Fellow with Jim Wells at UC San Francisco and earned a PhD in structural biology with James Berger at UC Berkeley.