Exploring Different Approaches to Identify & Engineer Out Fusion Proteins’ Immunogenicity & Toxicity
7:45 am Registration & Morning Coffee
8:45 am Chair’s Opening Remarks
9:00 am Developing Scalable Engineering Techniques to Improve Drug Safety & Maintain Efficacy
Synopsis
- Considering a case study where small-scale fusion protein engineering was optimized to be scalable
- Understanding the key design decisions that enabled this
- Outlining how to predict the scalability of approaches
9:30 am Engineering Novel Antibody Fusion Proteins for Cancer Immunotherapy VIRTUAL
Synopsis
- Engineering and preclinical properties of the novel antibody fusion proteins FAP-4-1BBL, CD19-4-1BBL
- Design and preclinical properties of the novel PD-1 cis-targeted PD1-IL2v immunocytokine
- Application for cancer immunotherapy
10:00 am Engineering Fusion Proteins to Reduce the Toxicity While Ensuring Appropriate Potency
Synopsis
- Determining how changing binding affinity will affect toxicity and potency
- Deciding the correct affinity for the drug target and disease indication
- Revealing decision making to determine the balance of reducing toxicity and effective potency
10:30 am Morning Break & Speed Networking
Synopsis
Our speed networking is the ideal opportunity to get face-to-face time with many of the brightest minds working in fusion protein engineering and introduce yourself to the attendees that you would like to have more in-depth conversations with. Benchmark against industry leaders and establish meaningful business relationships to pursue for the rest of the conference and beyond.
11:30 am Modulating the Potency of Multispecific Fusion Proteins to Safely Accommodate Pro-Inflammatory Payloads
Synopsis
- Using simultaneous adjustments of synaptic distance and apparent affinity to engineer multispecific fusion proteins with an array of potencies.
- Choosing the functional attributes of an immune agonist fusion protein for addition of pro-inflammatory payloads
- Developability considerations for complex multispecific fusion proteins incorporating inflammatory payloads
12:00 pm Multiplexed In Vivo Drug Discovery Using a Novel Protein Barcoding Technology
Synopsis
• Simultaneously determining biodistribution for pools of antibody molecules to engineer tumor and tissue targeting
• Examples of in vitro assays being poorly predictive of downstream in vivo results
• Examples from tumor-specific antibody engineering, blood-brain barrier (BBB) shuttle discovery
12:30 pm Using Fc-fusion Proteins to Activate NK Cells & Target Unwanted B Cell Responses
Synopsis
- Showing Fc-fusion protein binding to FcgRIIIa (CD16) on NK cells
- Demonstrating that activation of NK cells by an Fc-fusion protein requires secondary binding by the fusion protein
- Using an Fc-fusion protein to target unwanted B cells
1:00 pm Networking Lunch
Validating Appropriate Engineering of Stable Fusion Proteins
2:00 pm Identifying Mutations to Improve Protein Stability for in Vivo Efficacy
Synopsis
- Determining which regions of the protein compromise stability using in silico tools and cell-based assays
- Spotlighting modifications to improve the stability
- Identifying commonalities across drug candidates to determine design rules
2:30 pm Spotlighting Complementary Assay Design to Assess the Immunosafety of a Novel TCR/anti-CD3 Fusion Protein
Synopsis
- Developing a safety package in the absence of preclinical toxicology species
- Recapping a case study of in vitro immunosafety assessment to assess activity and specificity and de-risk toxicity
- Understanding how to ensure relevance of assays given differential behavior of proteins within each patient
3:00 pm Afternoon Networking Break
Discussing Modifications to Improve Expression & Add Functionality
3:45 pm Adding Therapeutic Functionality by Fusion of Diverse Protein Therapeutics: Synergy or Interference?
Synopsis
- Recapping the development of a novel fusion protein therapeutic constructed from two diverse protein
- Reflecting on the effects of fusion by comparing the fusion protein to its individual components for desired properties
- Considering the path forward for similar fusion proteins
4:15 pm Protein Engineering Using Novel Chemical Methods to Access PD1-based Immunocytokines
Synopsis
- Generating immunocytokines through site-specific chemical conjugation of cytokine to “off-the-shelf” human IgG antibodies
- Exploring PD1-based immunocytokines to induce potent antitumor immune response through orthogonal mechanisms of action
- Functional characterization data of PD1-based immunocytokines