The Antibody Society

the official website of the antibody society

An international non-profit supporting antibody-related research and development.

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Join us for our next webinar on Thursday June 6th!

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Registration is open!

In this webinar Dr. Jin Lu will show how Lonza’s novel GS Discovery® transient expression platform can boost transient titers by ~30-fold to enable rapid early material supply, and streamline the transition from discovery to stable production. Dr. Lu will also introduce bYlok® bispecific pairing technology – an innovative solution that drives correct heavy-light chain pairing rates in IgG-like bispecifics to >95%. This improves yields of the correct species and streamlines downstream processing, without affecting key performance attributes of the molecule. Dr. Lu will present the latest case studies of bYlok® engineered bispecifics and explore how bYlok® compares to other established pairing solutions.

2024 Research Competition winners!

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The Society’s Communication and Membership Committee is glad to announce the 2024 Research Competition winners! 

 

Our student winner is:

Ms. Marlena Surówka (Roche Innovation Center Zurich, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich)

Poster title: P329G-Engager: A Novel Universal Antibody-based Adaptor Platform For Cancer Immunotherapy

 

Our post doc winner is:

Dr. Shivani Sachdev (National Institutes of Health (NIH))

Poster title: Leveraging antibodies and chemistry to interrogate cell surface receptor function

 

The Antibody Society sponsors competitions each year to recognize and encourage the research activities of promising student/postdoctoral fellows. For the Research Competition, participants submitted a summary of their work on a topic related to antibody research. Winners (1 student and 1 post-doc) were selected based on originality, creativity, scientific merit, clarity of their research and its presentation.

Winners will receive:

  • broad exposure of their work,
  • a $400 cash prize,
  • and the option of a free registration to: 1) Schrödinger’s online course, Introduction to Computational Antibody Engineering; or 2) virtual Antibody Engineering & Therapeutics.

Congratulations to our winners and thanks to everyone who participated!

Watch out for our next Research Competition in 2025!

Information on past competitions and winners can be found here.

Join us on April 25 to learn how to harness divergent species to access difficult and conserved antibody targets!

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Registration is open!

To exploit highly conserved and difficult drug targets, including GPCRs and ion channels, monoclonal antibody discovery efforts are increasingly relying on the advantages offered by divergent species such as rabbits, camelids, and chickens. Divergent host species enable robust immune responses against highly conserved binding sites and yield antibodies capable of penetrating functional pockets via long HCDR3 regions. Pan-reactive molecules are often produced by divergent hosts, and these antibodies can be tested in accessible animal models, offering a faster path to clinical development. In this webinar, Dr. Ross Chambers will analyze gaps in therapeutic antibodies that stem from the historic use of mice and examine opportunities to exploit previously inaccessible targets through discovery in alternate species. Examples of preclinical and clinical-stage antibodies raised in divergent species will be highlighted, providing an overview of their success.

Learn how to harness the power of ADCs in our next webinar!

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Join us for our next webinar!

Antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) have emerged as an important class of targeted therapeutics, combining the targeting specificity of antibodies with the potency of cytotoxic drugs. Recent advances in ADC research have led to improved stability, efficacy, and safety. There is a clear trend within Antibody therapeutics towards ADCs with the improvement of novel technologies to address a growing cancer population worldwide.

However, developing effective ADCs is expensive and poses unique informatics challenges. Researchers must integrate data across multiple modalities – from antibody discovery and engineering to small molecule payload development and optimization. Seamless collaboration between immunologists, protein engineers, chemists, and pharmacologists are essential.

The Signals™ Research Suite is the first integrated informatics platform purpose-built to accelerate multi-modal drug development like ADCs and is composed of a trio of scientific software applications:

  • Signals™ Notebook: The premier cloud-based electronic lab notebook that facilitates creation and communication about molecules of interest via hierarchical editing language for macromolecules (HELM), powered Chemdraw®.
  • Signals™ VitroVivo: For data analysis, visualization, and curve fitting bioassay results for standardized and consistent results, powered by Spotfire®.
  • Signals™ Inventa: Enabling multi-assay or multi-study comparison, powered by Spotfire, with the ability to find the best candidate to move forward, accelerating decision making. Researchers gain better visibility into ADC candidate profiling and can quickly determine structure-activity and structure-property relationships across modalities to select optimal conjugation sites and pairings.

Attendees will gain insights into the latest trends and challenges in ADC development, informed by recent research and advancements in the field. The presentation will also emphasize the importance of integrating various data types and sources in the ADC development process, showcasing how the Signals Research Suite facilitates this integration, thereby driving more efficient, safer drug development.

About the speaker:

Dr. Wisotsky attended the University of California, Santa Cruz with a focus on molecular and cellular biology. He obtained his Ph.D. at the University of California, Riverside for Neuroscience where he worked on taste detection from molecular mechanism to behavioral outcomes in fruit flies. Subsequently Zev joined startup companies with the focus to support scientists getting their science done more efficiently. He has worked within pre-sales teams to discover, consult, and deliver software solutions that meet customer needs both scientifically and technically. Today he is a Revvity Senior Principle Marketing Manager for Biologics in the Signals Suite.

Registration is open!

 

Call for papers – Deadline for inquiry submissions is April 1!

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The Antibody Society’s latest analysis of the current early-stage clinical pipeline of antibody therapeutics shows that the biopharmaceutical industry is engaging in innovative research and development. For both cancer and non-cancer indications, ~60% of the antibody therapeutics in early-stage clinical development target novel antigens, and a growing portion of those against well-validated targets have been designed in novel formats (e.g., bispecifics, bispecific biparatopics, antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs), Fc engineered, hybrid isotype, immunoconjugates).

For mAbs’ next Collection, we invite The Antibody Society members, mAbs readers, and the broader scientific community to contribute review articles focused on innovative approaches for antibody therapeutic discovery. The reviews should narrate the state of the art on innovative formats, targets, or platforms for antibody therapeutic discovery, and speculate on new vistas for the field.

mAbs will waive publication charges for up to 8 of the best review articles selected from pre-submission inquiries, which should include the proposed authors, title, abstract, and general outline of the intended review article.

The deadline for pre-submission inquiries is April 1, 2024.
Authors will be notified of the Editors’ decision by April 15, 2024.
The deadline for submission of the completed review articles is December 15, 2024.

We are particularly interested in reviews on the following topics:

  • Novel platforms for antibody therapeutic discovery (e.g., novel target/epitope selection, novel approaches for enhancing or reducing Fc effector function, novel methods for enhancing antibody therapeutics half-life).
  • Novel targets or formats for cancer immunotherapy (i.e., novel antigens and formats for targeting tumors, immune cells, and the tumor microenvironment), design strategies for novel approaches in cancer immunotherapy.
  • Novel targets or formats beyond oncology (e.g., autoimmune diseases, cardiovascular/hemostasis, neurology, infectious disease, ophthalmology, rare diseases).
  • Novel immune-modulating antibodies (i.e., novel immune checkpoints and immune agonists), relevant design strategies, formats, applications and considerations for safety and tolerability in multiple disease areas.
  • Innovative format combinations (e.g., Bispecific/Multispecific ADCs, Bispecific/Multispecific checkpoint inhibitors), design strategies for these molecules and considerations for safety.
  • Novel formats for well-validated targets, relevant design strategies and considerations for efficacy, biodistribution and safety.

Although these topics are especially of interest, we welcome well-written reviews in related areas as well.

Please send pre-submission inquiries that include the authors, title, abstract, and general outline of the intended review article to Editor-in-Chief Dr. Janice Reichert (reichert.biotechconsulting@gmail.com) and Guest Editors Drs. Silvia Crescioli (silvia.crescioli@antibodysociety.org) and Kristina Ilieva-Babinsky (k.m.ilieva@gmail.com), and Prof. Jamie Spangler (jamie.spangler@jhu.edu). Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions.

Examples of other mAbs Collections can be found here.