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.
