Optimizing the Fusion Protein to Prevent Off-Target Receptor Binding for Patient Safety
8:00 am Registration & Morning Coffee
9:00 am Chair’s Opening Remarks
9:15 am Engineering Bifunctional Antibodies for Precise Control of Cell Membrane Proteins
Synopsis
- Engineering a new family of bifunctional antibodies that operate through a mechanism distinct to blocking ligand binding or engaging Fc-mediated effector functions
- Demonstrating their ability to enable precise manipulation of several cancer and immune drug targets
- Describing how this is a promising new approach to target the extracellular proteome
9:45 am Roundtable Discussion: Investigating Novel Linker Selection Depending on the Modality, Binding Site, & Disease Indication
Synopsis
- Discussing the limitations of current favored linkers, such as GS linker glycosylation
- Determining how different linker characteristics can affect the stability and flexibility of the fusion protein
- Fitting the linker selections to the biology and function of the fusion protein
10:45 am Morning Break & Networking Poster Session
Synopsis
Learn from your peers about their latest scientific insights and gain up-to-date data from
companies sharing their exciting work. Contribute to the conversation and share your
cutting-edge research to your fellow fusion protein community to:
- Communicate your breakthrough discoveries to a vast audience of experts
- Learn how others are tackling similar challenges to you
Advancing Predictions and Modifications for the Behaviour of Fusion Proteins for Manufacturing & in Vivo Applications
11:45 am Computational Tools to Aid in Fusion Protein Engineering, Developability & Assessing Their Critical Quality Attributes
Synopsis
• Revealing the computational tools developed to model the unique structure and engineering of fusion proteins
• Demonstrating the use of these tools both in discovery and development for developability assessment and in predicting the critical quality attributes that pose significant challenge in the development of fusion proteins
• Discussing case studies to showcase the use of these tools to aid in mechanistic understanding of protein degradation as well as higher order structural characterization
12:15 pm Revealing Mutations That Drive Half Life Extension & Reduce Immunogenicity to Improve Drug Function
Synopsis
- Discussing which mutations extend half life and reduce immunogenicity and why
- Revealing best practices to modify the fusion protein without compromising the function
- Balancing the half life with the safety of the drug
12:45 pm Roundtable Discussion: Deducing the Design Rules for Fusion Proteins to Accelerate Rational Engineering
Synopsis
- Exploring potential drivers of PK and PD to ensure engineering and GMP manufacturing does not affect protein structure
- Reflecting on what leads to a highly expressed construct that is easily formulated, highly soluble, and does not aggregate
- Examining the predictability of biodistribution to inform engineering strategies
1:30 pm Networking Lunch
Revealing Developability Considerations for Scalable Production
2:30 pm Fireside Chat: Automating Bench-Scale Protein Production & Screening to Improve Efficiency
Synopsis
- Understanding the bottlenecks of automated protein production and screening
- Revealing how automation can increase R&D efficiency
- Discussing how early-stage automation can enable CMC scale-up
3:15 pm Developing Scalable Drug Development Frameworks from Drug Substance to Drug Product to Accelerate Towards Clinical Trials
Synopsis
- Harmonizing drug development requirements with developability assessments of late-stage discovery molecules
- Highlighting current developability assessments and best practices for their implementation
- Ensuring efficient workflows and team interfaces