Therapeutic proteins and antibodies: from design to function - 18th June 2014

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Wednesday, 18 June 2014

www.regonline.co.uk/thera2014

Cineworld: The O2, London, SE10 0DX, UK

This meeting discusses new developments in therapeutic protein and antibody engineering with specific focus on science and technology of modifying proteins and antibodies (and the conditions of their manufacture) toward specific predefined properties that allow them to act as effective biological drugs. Special emphasis will be placed on structure-function relationships, mechanisms of action, potency and efficacy in disease-relevant models and in clinical trials. There will be plenty of opportunity for discussion and debate addressing the wide range of disciplines applied to the rapid and economical production of these molecules for biological therapies

This event has CPD accreditation

Meeting chair: Dr Sophia Karagiannis , Senior Research Fellow in Translational Cancer Immunology, Head of Cancer Antibody Discovery and Immunotherapy, King’s College London School of Medicine, UK

Who Should Attend

All academic and biotechnology/biopharma professionals interested in biological protein and antibody engineering, functional and potency evaluations; also scientists interested in biological therapeutics mechanisms of action and translational implications for therapy.

The Deadline for abstract submissions for oral presentation is April 10th 2014

Abstracts for poster presentation only can be submitted up to two weeks before the event

You can download the instructions for authors at

www.euroscicon.com/AbstractsForOralAndPosterPresentation.pdf

Talk times include 5 – 10 minutes for questions

 

9:00 – 9:45 Registration

9:45 – 10:00 Introduction by the Chair: Dr Sophia Karagiannis , Senior Research Fellow in Translational Cancer Immunology, Head of Cancer Antibody Discovery and Immunotherapy, King’s College London School of Medicine, UK

10:00 – 10:30 Therapeutic IgE antibodies: enhanced effector functions for cancer therapy

Dr Sophia Karagiannis , Senior Research Fellow in Translational Cancer Immunology, Head of Cancer Antibody Discovery and Immunotherapy, King’s College London School of Medicine, UK

Therapeutic antibodies with enhanced effector functions are now emerging and these properties are expected to enhance their clinical utility for the treatment of cancer. Our group has demonstrated that antibodies engineered with Fc regions of the IgE class targeting tumour-associated antigens can confer superior effector functions against tumours when compared to antibodies with IgG Fc regions. IgE class antibodies, known for potent immune activatory functions in tissues and high affinity for cognate receptors on frequently tumour-resident effector cells may be redirected to mediate protection against solid tumours. An antibody against the tumor antigen Folate Receptor α serves as a paradigm of this concept and this talk will explore the design and functional disease-relevant model systems interrogated to elucidate the potency and mechanisms of action of this antibody class. The pathway to translation of this agent towards first-in-man clinical testing will be discussed.

10:30 – 11:00 Talk to be confirmed

Professor. Fuad Fares, University of Haifa, Israel

11:00 – 11:30 Speakers’ photo then mid-morning break and poster exhibition and trade show

11:30 – 12:00 Quantum dot- conjugated antibodies as diagnostic and therapeutic tools for cancer imaging and treatment

Dr Weiming Xu, CEO, London Biotech Ltd

Therapeutic monoclonal antibodies have enormous potential for the treatment of cancer. The conjugates of monoclonal antibodies and nanoparticles, including quantum-dot, have offer significant advantages over conventional antibody. By conjugating Qdots with small antibody fragments targeting cancer markers, such as GRP78, we demonstrated that the Quantum dot-antibody retains its immunospecificity and its distribution can be monitored by visualization of multi-color fluorescence imaging both in vitro and in vivo. Moreover we have shown for the first time that Qdot-GRP78 scFv bioconjugates can be efficiently internalized by breast cancer cells and possess biological anti-tumour activity, showing its potential for cancer diagnosis and treatment.

12:00 – 12:30 ORAL PRESENTATIONS

12:30 – 13:30 Lunch, poster exhibition and trade show

13:30 – 14:30 Discussion Panel

14: 30 – 15:00 Selection of isotype for immunomodulatory anti-cancer antibodies

Dr Ann White, Senior Research Fellow, University of Southampton

Immunomodulatory monocloncal antibodies (mAb) are an exciting new class of anti-cancer agent designed to stimulate anti-tumour immunity. Using anti-CD40 as a model we analysed the roles of isotype and Fc receptor (FcR) interactions in mAb function. Surprisingly, and in contrast to direct targeting anti-cancer mAb such as anti-CD20, a crucial role for inhibitory FcRIIB interaction was found due to a requirement for mAb cross-linking. Manipulation of the mAb Fc to either increase or decrease activatory:inhibitory FcR binding ratio can thus be used to optimise different types of agent. These ongoing studies will be central to the design of next generation anti-cancer therapeutics.

15:00 – 15:30 Afternoon Tea, last poster session and trade show

15:30 – 16:00 Talk to be confirmed

Dr Sergio A. Quezada, Immune Regulation and Tumour Immunotherapy Group, UCL Cancer Institute

16:00 – 16:30 Talk to be confirmed

16:30 - 17:00 Talk to be confirmed

17:00 Chairman’s summing up

About the Speakers

Sophia Karagiannis is a translational cancer immunologist specialising in antibody therapies for melanoma, ovarian and breast carcinomas. She received BA and MS degrees at Rutgers University, USA, having received scholarship awards and a teaching assistantship (1987, 1991), and a PhD at King’s College London in Biochemistry under SERC and SmithKline Beecham-funded scholarships (1995). She subsequently developed immunotherapeutic strategies for cancer and inflammatory diseases in academic and biotechnology environments in London and Cambridge as a postdoctoral associate and scientific investigator. She was appointed as NIHR Senior Research Fellow in 2007 and presently leads her own research group as Head of Cancer Antibody Discovery and Immunotherapy at King’s College London, focused on dissecting humoral immunity in cancer and leading research into tumourtargeting mechanisms of IgE antibodies and Th2 responses in cancer. Sophia co-founded the International Task Force on AllergoOncology and has pioneered IgE therapeutics for solid tumours. Her research and development initiative on the first IgE class antibody for cancer therapy is conducted in close collaboration with clinical and academic groups at King’s College London and the CRUK Drug Development Office.

 

Ann White is a Senior Research Fellow within the Antibody and Vaccine group, Cancer Sciences Unit, University of Southampton. Her research is focused upon the optimisation of anti-cancer therapeutic mAb through the manipulation of mAb structure. Ann received a BSc in Applied Biology from the University of Hertfordshire in 1987 and a PhD in Molecular and Cellular Biology from the MRC Clinical Research Centre, Harrow in 1991. She then worked in the US for 10 years on lipoprotein metabolism, returning to the UK in 2001. After a career break with her young children Ann joined Professor Martin Glennie’s group in 2005 and is part of a large antibody development programme funded through CRUK.

 

Fuad Fares is a director of PROLOR Biotech and its Chief Scientific Officer and head of the Molecular Biology Division, Biochemical Research Unit, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics at the Carmel Medical Center in Haifa, Israel. While doing postdoctoral work at Washington University (St. Louis, Missouri), Professor Fares worked with Prof. Irving Boime to develop PROLOR’s platform technology. Dr. Fares was elected a research member at the Rappaport Institute for Research in Medical Sciences (Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, Bruce Rappaport Faculty of Medicine, 1995-1997). He is the recipient of several awards, including the prestigious Lindner Prize of the Israel Endocrine Society (2004), and the Shawers Prize of the Israel Endocrine Society (1997) and the author of over forty scientific articles and chapters in scientific textbooks. He is a member of two Israeli organizations: the Israel Endocrine Society and the Israeli Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. In the United States, Dr. Fares is a member of the Clinical Ligand Assay Society (CLAS), and the New York Academy of Sciences. He is a graduate of the department of pharmacology at the Technion - Israel Institute of Technology (Haifa, Israel).

 

Weiming Xu is the Chief Executives Officer in London Biotech Ltd. He obtained his PhD degree from the Imperial Cancer Research Fund/Chinese Academy of Sciences program in London. His first postdoctoral training was with Sir Bruce Ponder University of Cambridge. He then worked in Babraham Institute and later has taken the Senior Research Fellow position in the University College London, working on nitric oxide signaling with Sir Salvador Moncada. From 2009, he moved to the University of Sheffield as a Senior Research Associate. He has published more than 50 scientific papers in peer-reviewed journals with over 1,400 citations(ISI).

 

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