Biorbis Antibody Engineering and Design Conference and Workshops
Antibody Engineering and Design USA
Accelerating Progress in Antibody Drug Development
Conference: July 28th/29th 2010 | Pre-conference Workshops: July 27th | Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Pre-Conference Workshops: Tuesday 27th July 2010
Please click on the titles to find out more about each workshop:
0900 – 1230
Workshop A: Strategies for Immunogenicity Assessment & Avoidance of Therapeutic Antibodies
Immunogenicity of protein therapeutics can give rise to partial or complete loss of drug efficacy, altered pharmacokinetics, or cross-reaction with a patient’s endogenous proteins. The latter can result in severe adverse effects that may even be life-threatening. Therefore, immunogenicity of each biologics has to be assessed and recorded according to regulatory guidelines, using a risk planning approach. Strategies to assess clinical immunogenicity will be reviewed and strategies to address immunogenicity risk of protein therapeutics and to reduce the risk at earliest stage possible will be presented. The workshop covers:
- Overview of the immunogenicity causes and drivers
- Applying the novel EMEA guidance and industry whitepapers to antibody therapeutics
- Clinical and non-clinical strategies to assess/control immunogenicity of therapeutic antibodies
- Prediction and assessment of T-cell epitope driven immunogenicity at early stage of product development using in silico and in vitro tools
- Antibody deimmunization to further mitigate immunogenicity risk
- Selected case studies
About Your Facilitator
Head of Applied Protein Services
Lonza Biologics
Philippe Stas, Head of Applied Protein Services, Lonza Biologics Philippe Stas has been active at the interface of information technology, protein engineering, and bioinformatics for almost two decades. From 1990 to 1997, he attended the Free University of Brussels (Belgium) where he conducted applied research for projects involving antibody engineering and bioinformatics. After working as IT Manager at Perkin-Elmer’s Genscope subsidiary (currently Applied Biosystems, CA, USA), he helped found Algonomics in 1999, acting as CEO. Since the acquisition by Lonza Group in Nov 2009, Philippe expands the Applied Portein Services function of Lonza Biologics. Philippe Stas holds an MBA, a M.Sc.E. in biotechnology and a M.Sc. in Information Technology.
He serves as the Chairman of the Belgian Association for Bioindustries and as the President of the European Immunogenicity Platform
1330 - 1630
Workshop B: Developing Effective, Well-Characterized Antibody-Drug Conjugates
Antibody-Drug Conjugates (ADCs) are attracting increasing interest based on a growing body of clinical data, and the first ADC for a prevalent type of solid tumor could potentially gain FDA marketing approval by early 2011. There are a number of considerations to the successful design, development and manufacturing of ADC compounds.
This workshop session will cover topics ranging from:
- Selection of the most appropriate cell-killing agent (“drug”)
- Design and choice of chemical linker
- Evaluation of mechanism of action
- Achieving a well-characterized therapeutic that can be commercially manufactured
Active participation by the attendees is encouraged and we welcome specific questions, either in advance (to Richard.lumb@hansonwade.com) or on the day. The workshop will provide an introduction to this field of antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) for those who are new to the subject, as well as some challenges to current dogma and opportunities for critical debate for those who are more experienced.
About Your Facilitator
Executive Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer
ImmunoGen
John Lambert joined ImmunoGen as Senior Director of Research in 1987 and was promoted to Vice President, Research and Development in 1994, to Senior Vice President, Pharmaceutical Development in 2000, to Senior Vice President, Research and Development and Chief Scientific Officer in early 2008, and to Executive Vice President, Research and Development and Chief Scientific Officer in July 2008. Prior to his tenure with ImmunoGen, Dr. Lambert was Assistant Professor of Pathology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, MA.
Dr. Lambert received his doctorate in Biochemistry from Cambridge University in England, and did his postdoctoral training at the University of California, Davis, and Glasgow University in Scotland.
