Engineering Stream

DISPLAY TECHNOLOGIES FOR RAPID ANTIBODY DISCOVERY

TUESDAY, JUNE 2 | 10:00 AM - 1:15 PM (ET)

The evolution of phage and yeast display techniques have enabled a vast array of constructs that include bispecific antibodies, antibody-drug conjugates, immunotherapy constructs, T cell receptors, and membrane proteins with ever greater potency and target specificity. Learn what is new in phage and yeast display from the premier leaders in the industry who will discuss the latest tools and creative solutions being developed.

10:00 Chairperson's Opening Remarks 

Jennifer R. Cochran, PhD, Shriram Chair of Bioengineering; Professor of Bioengineering, and (by courtesy) Chemical Engineering, Stanford University

10:10 Antibodies to Oxidative Neoepitope

Ahuva Nissim, PhD, Professor, Antibody and Therapeutic Engineering, William Harvey Research Institute, Queen Mary University of London

10:45 Keynote Presentation: Antibodies to Difficult Targets, Multiclonals and Antibodies with Affinity Switches

Stefan Dübel, PhD, Professor & Chair, Technische Universität Braunschweig, Institute of Biochemistry, Biotechnology and Bioinformatics

11:20 Optimizing Antibody Affinity Using Precisely Defined Synthetic DNA Mutant Libraries 

Kimberly Arnold, Product Manager, GenScript USA Inc.

Engineering antibody therapeutics requires diverse mutant libraries. Current techniques suffer from limited control over codon usage and poor variant representation. GenScript uses our semiconductor-based oligonucleotide synthesis platform to precisely control codon usage and eliminate library bias to construct diverse mutant libraries, enabling faster and more cost-effective antibody optimization.

11:40 Comprehensive Epitope/Paratope Mapping using AlphaSeq

Michael Wittekind, CEO, Olympic Protein Technologies

11:55 Refreshment Break

12:00 Engineered Ligand Traps as Potent Cancer Therapeutics

Sean Hunter, Researcher, Bioengineering Stanford University

12:40 Interactive Q&A Session with Speakers and Audience

1:10 Close of Day

ANTIBODIES TO COMBAT PANDEMIC VIRUSES

TUESDAY, JUNE 9 | 10:AM - 1:15 PM (ET)

The current pandemic has led to devastating health and economic effects and antibody engineering offers a potential treatment for COVID-19 that is being fast-tracked through the entire process of discovery, development, manufacturing and regulation. Overcoming challenges posed by rapidly mutating viruses such as the coronavirus is key in this effort to develop a therapy and requires novel regulatory pathways and manufacturing processes for swift and timely delivery.

10:00 Chairperson's Opening Remarks 

Jacob Glanville, PhD, Co-Founder & CEO & President, Distributed Bio Inc.

10:10 Human Monoclonal Antibodies for Epidemics: Fast, or Ahead of Time?

James E. Crowe, Jr., MD, Ann Scott Carell Chair & Professor & Director, Vanderbilt University

10:45 Taking the Training Wheels off Transient Expression: Rapid Antibody Production for Pandemics

Ian Wilkinson, CSO, Absolute Antibody

In a pandemic, three critical things need to be developed quickly: diagnostics, therapeutics and vaccines. Transient expression of antibodies and other proteins offers an important tool for rapid scale-up and production. It is a well-established technique that, if applied correctly, could make future pandemic responses quicker.

11:05 Synthetic DNA Technologies Enable Fast and Responsive SARS-CoV-2 Antibody Discovery and Optimization

Aaron Sato, PhD, CSO, Biopharma, Twist Bioscience

Utilizing its proprietary DNA technology to write synthetic libraries, Twist Biopharma provides end-to-end antibody discovery and optimization solutions for the biotechnology industry.   To highlight the power of this platform, our anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibody discovery and optimization efforts will be presented.

11:25 Refreshment Break

11:30 Keynote Presentation: Antibody Discovery Efforts

Jacob Glanville, PhD, Co-Founder & CEO & President, Distributed Bio Inc.

11:55 Interactive Q&A Session with Speakers and Audience

12:25 Close of Day

ENGINEERING BISPECIFIC ANTIBODIES

TUESDAY, JUNE 16 | 10:00 AM - 1:15 PM (ET)

The world of bispecific antibody strategies, formats and clinical results has been gearing up over the past several years. We are excited to bring you this new virtual platform to explore new engineering and manufacturing advances that are enabling the next generation of improved novel formats. Bi- and multi-specific constructs are showing tremendous power, not just for oncology, but also infectious disease applications.

10:00 Chairperson's Opening Remarks 

Christian Klein, PhD, Cancer Immunotherapy Discovery, Roche Pharma Research & Early Development, Roche Innovation Center Zurich

10:10 Keynote Presentation: Providing 4-1BB Co-Stimulation to T Cells for Off-the-Shelf Combination Cancer Immunotherapy

Christian Klein, PhD, Cancer Immunotherapy Discovery, Roche Pharma Research & Early Development, Roche Innovation Center Zurich

10:55 Bringing Bispecifics to Bear Against Intracellular Cancer Targets Using Peptide:HLA as the Window into the Cell

G. Jonah Rainey, PhD, Vice President, Antibody Therapeutics, Gritstone Oncology, Inc.

11:35 Refreshment Break

11:40 Human and Bispecific Antibodies as Immunotherapies for Chikungunya Virus

Jonathan R. Lai, PhD, Professor, Department of Biochemistry, Albert Einstein College of Medicine

12:20 Interactive Q&A Session with Speakers and Audience

12:50 Close of Day

MAKING ANTIBODIES RAPIDLY TO COMBAT PANDEMIC OUTBREAKS

TUESDAY, JUNE 23 | 10:05 AM - 12:50 PM (ET)

The current pandemic has caused immeasurable harm to public health and applied crippling pressure to economies on a worldwide scale. Antibody engineering is advancing solutions to meet these challenges and provide new avenues to biotherapeutics including vaccines, antibodies and anti-viral therapies. These will be necessary not just to address the current crisis, but also prepare us for the next one. Learn from leaders in the field who are advancing novel solutions and leveraging the latest tools at their disposal, including gene therapy, NGS and AI.

10:05 Chairperson's Opening Remarks 

David Lowe, PhD, Senior Director, R&D, Antibody Discovery and Protein Engineering, AstraZeneca

10:10 Keynote Presentation: Rapid Discovery of Anti-Viral Antibodies and Development as Gene Therapies for Pandemic Prevention

David Lowe, PhD, Senior Director, R&D, Antibody Discovery and Protein Engineering, AstraZeneca

10:45 Potent Human Monoclonal Antibodies Against SARS-CoV-2 and Other Emerging Viruses

Dimiter Stanchev Dimitrov, PhD, Infectious Diseases, Director, Center for Antibody Therapeutics, University of Pittsburgh; EVP and CSO, Abound Bio

11:10 From Patient Screen to Phase I in 90 days: Identifying Neutralizing Antibodies for a Potential COVID-19 Treatment

Kevin Heyries, Co-Founder, Head, Business Development, AbCellera

AbCellera’s antibody discovery platform combines high-throughput microfluidics, machine learning, bioinformatics and genomics to identify new first-in-class drugs faster. In 90 days, neutralizing antibodies were identified from a convalescent patient sample and a lead candidate is currently being studied in the world’s first clinical trial of a potential COVID-19 antibody treatment.

11:25 Refreshment Break

11:30 Cross-Neutralization of SARS-CoV-2 by a Human Monoclonal SARS-CoV Antibody

Gyorgy Snell, PhD, Senior Director, Structural Biology, Antibody Discovery, VIR Biotechnology

Vaccine and therapeutic discovery efforts are paramount to curb the COVID-19 pandemic. Here we describe a monoclonal antibody, S309, targeting SARS-CoV-2 spike (S) identified from memory B cells of an individual who was infected with SARS-CoV in 2003. S309 potently neutralizes SARS-CoV-2 by engaging the S receptor-binding domain.

11:50 Generation of Broad and Potent Neutralizing Antibodies to Speed Pandemic Responses

Laura Walker, PhD, Director, Antibody Sciences, Adimab, LLC

12:20 Interactive Q&A Session with Speakers and Audience

12:50 Close of Day