Antibodies in Drug Discovery Agenda

Other Track Agendas

Academic Drug Discovery | Antibodies in Drug Discovery | Epigenetics in Drug Discovery | Stem Cells in Drug Discovery |

Monday, 6 March 2017

08:00	Registration
	Session 1
	Session Chair: Eugene Zhukovsky, Chief Scientific Officer, Biomunex Pharmaceuticals, France

09:30	Cross-Neutralising Single Domain Antibodies to Influenza – Preparing for the Next Pandemic Simon Hufton, Section Head Molecular Immunology, National Institute for Biological Standard and Control (NIBSC), United Kingdom Single domain antibodies (nanobodies) and their applications to influenza vaccine potency testing and immunotherapy will be discussed.
10:00	Monoclonal Antibody Therapy for the Management of Severe Asthma Suzanne Cohen, , MedImmune, United Kingdom Severe asthma involves a number of variants with different underlying pathologies. Genome Wide Association Studies have consistently implicated IL-33 and its receptor ST2 in asthma. IL-33 itself has intriguing biochemistry that has implications for antibody discovery.
10:30	Coffee & Networking in Exhibition Hall
11:00	Antibody-Mediated Neonatal Protection Against Respiratory Syncytial Virus Shamir Jacobino, Researcher, University Medical Center Utrecht, Netherlands RSV is a leading cause of lower respiratory tract infections in young infants. We provide the first evidence that virus-specific antibodies in the lungs of neonates originating from amniotic fluid can protect in the critical first weeks of newborns.
11:30	Living Droplets – Microfluidic Antibody and Vaccine Discovery at Very High Throughput Christoph Merten, Principal Investigator, European Molecular Biology Laboratory, Germany This presentation will discuss droplet based microfluidics for the direct screening of millions of primary murine (from spleen and bone marrow) and human (from blood) plasma cells. It will also discuss assays for antibody binding, inhibition of enzymatic drug targets, effect on target cells. Compatability with difficult targets such as GPCRs and the screening of vaccine candidates.
12:00	Technology Spotlight: Novel Assay Formats using NanoLuc® Luciferase Technology for Homogeneous Immunoassay, Immunogenicity and Receptor-ligand Blockade Craig Malcolm, Strategic Collaborations Manager, Promega UK Ltd This talk will describe recently developed assays using NanoLuc® luciferase technology applied to PK/immunogenicity studies and a no-wash, homogeneous immunoassay format. In addition, data will be presented on cell-based BRET assays for quantifying antibody biologic mediated blocking of receptor-ligand interactions.
12:15	Technology Spotlight: Cyto-Mine® – An Enabling Platform for Biologic Drug Discovery and Development Frank Gesellchen, Senior Scientist, Sphere Fluidics Picodroplet technology can be used to find rare and valuable variants within heterogeneous cell populations. We are developing the Cyto-Mine® Single Cell Analysis and Monoclonality Assurance System which leverages this cutting-edge approach for the discovery of novel biotherapeutics.
12:20	Lunch & Networking in Exhibition Hall
13:00	Poster Viewing Session
13:15	Free Workshop Obtaining Reliable Binding Kinetics for Biomolecular Interactions Workshop Philip Buckle, Senior Scientist
	Session 2
	Session Chair: Christoph Merten, Principal Investigator, European Molecular Biology Laboratory, Germany

14:15	Enabling Cancer Immunotherapy, From Target to Phenotype Andrew Green, Senior Drug Discovery Specialist, Discoverx, United Kingdom This presentation will highligh innovative microtiter plate based assays to interrogate immune checkpoint receptors and introduce KILR™
14:45	Cancelled due to ill Health - Identification of Novel Neo-Epitopes on Antibodies Generated through Chemical Degradation: Relevance for Potency and Immunogenicity Christian Schoneich, Professor, University of Kansas, United States of America This presentation will give an overview over novel degradation reactions and products of proteins with relevance for the generation of stable protein formulations and immunogenicity.
15:15	BiXAb(R) is a Versatile Modular Platform for the Development of Bispecific Antibodies Eugene Zhukovsky, Chief Scientific Officer, Biomunex Pharmaceuticals, France Plug-and Play BiXAb® platform enables generically applicable bispecific antibody design from any pair of monospecific mAbs. These bispecific antibodies possess excellent manufacturability, superior drug-like properties, and potent activity in vivo models. We will discuss a case study of the BiXAb® for the treatment of EGFR+/HER2+ solid tumors.
15:45	Coffee & Networking in Exhibition Hall
16:15	Efficient Mining of the Natural Antibody Repertoire – Next Generation Antibody Discovery Daniel Lightwood, Director, UCB Pharma, United Kingdom An overview of UCB’s unique antibody discovery platform and how we are integrating droplet microfluidics to increase efficiency. A case study will also be presented.
16:45	Discovering and Engineering Antibodies by High-throughput Repertoire Sequencing Sai Reddy, Assistant Professor, ETH Zurich, Switzerland The ability obtain a greater molecular understanding of antibody responses may enable new approaches in engineering and discovery of mAbs. Recent advances in high-throughput immunoglobulin (antibody) repertoire sequencing (Ig-seq) are enabling highly quantitative analysis of antibody responses.
17:15	High Precision Protein Folding and Aggregation Analytics by NanoDSF Claire Hatty, Application Specialist, NanoTemper, United Kingdom NanoDSF is an advanced Differential Scanning Fluorimetry (DSF) method for measuring ultra-high resolution protein stability using intrinsic tryptophan fluorescence, while simultaneously measuring aggregation in the sample. Applications include protein engineering, membrane protein research, antibody formulation development and quality control.
17:45	Drinks Reception in Exhibition Hall
20:00	Conference Dinner in Hinxton Hall
22:00	End of Day 1

Tuesday, 7 March 2017

Session 3

Session Chair: Dolores Cahill, Professor, University College Dublin, Ireland

09:00

Pros and Cons of Nanobodies for Drug Discovery
Serge Muyldermans, Professor, Vrije Universiteit, Belgium

Nanobodies, the antigen binding fragments from heavy chain only antibodies of camelids offer a unique source of minimal-sized potent drugs with multiple beneficial properties and a myriad of possible applications. Llama and camels have unique antibodies comprising a homodimer of heavy chain polypeptides, whereby the antigen is recognized by virtue of one single domain.

09:30

Antibody Engineering and Diagnostic Imaging at the Forefront of Targeted Therapies
Nick Devoogdt, Professor, Free University Brussels (VUB), Belgium

The application of nanobodies as tracers and therapeutic vehicles for nuclear medicine in a range of pathologies will be presented, including compound discovery, preclinical animal testing and clinical translation.

10:00

Keynote Presentation

Targeting FcRn for therapy: from modulating IgG levels to tumor metabolism
Sally Ward, Professor, Texas A&M Health Science Center, United States of America

Through its recycling activity, FcRn controls the levels of IgG and albumin in the body. Recent studies involving the modulation of IgG levels for diagnosis and therapy, combined with the identification of FcRn as a metabolic regulator, will be presented.