Originally Aired: June 11, 2019
Time: 8:00 am PT, 11:00 am ET, 17:00 CET

The therapeutic antibody market has reached a fever pitch of enthusiasm, in no small part due to successes of recent drug approvals for a host of disorders such as psoriasis, multiple sclerosis, C. difficile infections, and cancer. As awe-inspiring as many of the treatment success stories for these drugs has been, there is still a large percentage of patients for whom these therapies are not recommended or have been ineffective. This is an unacceptable scenario for most investigators and represents a real opportunity to have a dramatic impact on those stricken with severe and even life-threating disorders. Like the race car mechanic who searchers for novel ways to squeeze every bit of horsepower out of an engine, molecular engineers look for ingenious methods to exploit the inherent nature of antibody molecules—making them more effective drugs. In this GEN webinar, we will hear from two leading scientists who will describe their current antibody engineering research projects and the therapeutic potential they hold:

Dr. Danica Stanimirovic will address the general principles, formats, and development challenges of bi-specific antibodies. In particular, Dr. Stanimirovic’s presentation will focus on the advantages of single-domain antibodies in engineering bi-specific forms. Case studies on the development and evaluation of bi-specific antibodies for neurological diseases will be discussed.

Dr. Dimiter S. Dimitrov will tell us about his laboratory’s work on engineered antibody domains for the development of candidate therapeutics against cancer and HIV. Dr. Dimitrov will provide data showing that results from his team’s work were used as guiding moieties for chimeric antigen receptors select CARs) and bispecific fusion proteins that exhibited highly effective and specific inhibitory activity cell killing.

A live Q&A session followed the presentations, offering you a chance to pose questions to our expert panelists.

Produced with support from:

Danica Stanimirovic MD, PhD
Director, Translational Bioscience
National Research Council of Canada
Dimiter S. Dimitrov, PhD, ScD
Professor
University of Pittsburgh