3 min read
Antibody Solutions was honored to participate in the 2024 Festival of Biologics, which was held in San Diego, California, April 15-17. Whether you’re looking to make some new connections or to nurture ongoing relationships, Festival of Biologics (FoB) provides access to more than 2,000 industry leaders all in one place. The close proximity of FoB’s venue – the San Diego Convention Center – to the serene Embarcadero Marina and charming Gaslamp District doesn’t hurt either.
Joshua Lowitz, Director of Project Management (left), and Jon Sliver, Project Manager (right), represented Antibody Solutions at FoB 2024.
With more than 300 speakers and 130 institutions participating as exhibitors and sponsors, FoB is guaranteed to offer something for everyone. Despite the size and scope of the event, we found the atmosphere at FoB 2024 to be relaxed and congenial. The technology on display included new platforms for therapeutic antibody discovery, including benchtop B-cell screening and an array of “plug-and-play” solutions for biologics characterization and engineering. Not surprisingly, some of the most interesting tech was featured in the festival’s “Startup Zone,” an area of the exhibition floor dedicated to 40 small biotech startup companies.
It’s always interesting to hear and track hot-button topics of discussion from year to year. FoB 2024 showed that companies are thinking about the ways that antibody discovery can be pursued through next generation sequencing (NGS) or enhanced through artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning. Both Antibody Solutions’ project manager Jon Silver and I attended this years’ FoB, and noted that our peers in the field are learning the value of flexible, multiple-pathway approaches to antibody discovery. This is the approach we have been promoting through Cellestive, our branded discovery platform.
In his excellent keynote address on Day 1, Glen Spraggon of Novartis discussed the history of structural biology, x-ray crystallography, and Cryo-EM. He then detailed the emergence and evolution of in-silico modeling tools, machine learning, and generative AI for protein folding and antibody docking predictions. A major takeaway: While the modeling tools are getting more powerful by the day, Dr. Spraggon still urged validation of the models with in vitro experimentation (as we have also noted). It’s fair to say that computers won’t be replacing Antibody Solutions or any of our peer companies any time soon.
Joshua Lowitz, Antibody Solutions’ Director of Project Management, presenting a segment of “Humanization and Reformatting of Therapeutic Antibody Candidates” at FoB 2024. Photo by Jon Silver.
I gave a presentation that covered some of the latest research and development work we’re spearheading at Antibody Solutions. In “Humanization and Reformatting of Therapeutic Antibody Candidates,” I discussed our own applications of in-silico molecular modeling and machine learning techniques in our therapeutic antibody discovery process. I included two case studies of humanization and reformatting work that we’ve conducted: (1) the reformatting of chimeric VEGF-D antibodies from transgenic animal models; and (2) the humanization of murine antibodies against the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein. From our research, we developed valuable metrics to improve the efficiency of the humanization process and further bolstered our expertise and confidence in transgenic models to support the discovery of therapeutic candidates.
Overall, this year’s Festival of Biologics provided a beautiful setting, new and interesting technologies, great scientific presentations, and a fantastic opportunity to connect with colleagues. If you were unable to connect with us at this year’s Festival, it’s still not too late to reach out to learn more about the original research we presented. Drop us a line and learn how we can put our platform of discovery services to work for you.
