Over the last two decades, cryogenic electron microscopy (cryo-EM) has transformed from what Dr. Andrew Ward calls the “outcast of structural biology” to one of the most promising technologies in the field. Ward, professor of integrative structural and computational biology at Scripps Research Institute, speaks with moderator Brandon DeKosky, assistant professor of chemical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, about the evolution of cryo-EM and how its direct detector transf...
Jan 10, 2023•32 min•Season 3Ep. 44
Dame Jane Osbourn, chief scientific officer at Alchemab Therapeutics, speaks with Ahuva Nissim, antibody and therapeutic engineering professor at Queen Mary University of London William Harvey Research Institute, about the career path that took her from studying molecular biology and building human phage libraries to developing therapeutics with convergent protective antibodies. Osbourn talks about the most inspiring mentors of her career, her interest in immunological resiliency, the importance...
Dec 12, 2022•28 min•Season 3Ep. 43
Charlotte Deane, professor of structural bioinformatics at the University of Oxford and upcoming speaker at the 14th Annual PEGS Europe Conference in Barcelona, joins moderator Brandon DeKosky, assistant professor of chemical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, to discuss the use of machine learning in antibody structure prediction. In this episode, Deane talks about her lab's AI tools for high-throughput prediction pipelines and why collecting general antibody property dat...
Nov 08, 2022•36 min•Season 3Ep. 42
After over 25 years as an intellectual property (IP) attorney, Jane Remillard, Nelson Mullins patents and biotechnology IP senior partner, is well-versed in navigating drug development and antibody patent law. In this episode, Remillard speaks with moderator Nimish Gera, Mythic Therapeutics vice president of biologics, about the intersection between science and law, the primary steps recommended to patent a scientific discovery, and how the antibody IP landscape has evolved in recent years. She ...
Oct 11, 2022•21 min•Season 3Ep. 41
Dr. Nimish Gera, Head of Biologics at Mythic Therapeutics, sits down with Christina Lingham, Executive Director of Conferences and Fellow at Cambridge Healthtech Institute, in this Episode of the Chain to talk about how the developability of bispecific antibodies topic came about, how the field is changing, new bispecific molecules coming through the pipeline, and his expectations for the future.
Oct 19, 2021•16 min•Season 2Ep. 40
Rene Hoet is working for over 20 years in Biotech and Pharma Industry focusing on Antibody Research and development. Since April 1 2021 Rene works as Chief Scientific Officer at Montis Biosciences, Leuven, Belgium to develop the next generation Immuno-Oncology drugs using a novel approach interfering in the Tumor Endothelial Cell and Perivascular Macrophage Interactions to restore a immunocompetent tumor microenvironment. From Oct. 2018 till 26 March 2021 Rene worked as Chief Scientific Officer ...
Aug 12, 2021•20 min•Season 2Ep. 39
A University of Alabama Birmingham researcher was frustrated with inconsistent solutions and processes for purifying unique proteins and set out to develop a new approach for high throughput protein purification. Thus was the seed idea for TriAltus Bioscience, which aims to bring protein purification technology from the research bench to the production environment. The Chain spoke with Bob Shufflebarger, CEO of TriAltus to give the background story and insights into future developments. TriAltus...
Jul 23, 2021•26 min•Season 2Ep. 38
The Chain looks back to earlier this year when researchers virtually convened on the one-year anniversary of the first documented case of COVID-19 in the United States. This episode brings you a panel discussion from PepTalk Protein Science and Production Week, moderated by Karla Satchell, PhD, Professor of Microbiology and Co-Director of the Center for Structural Genomics of Infectious Diseases at Northwestern University. The panel discusses the role of data integration for the rapid R&D of...
Jul 09, 2021•21 min•Season 2Ep. 37
Nancy Sajjadi joins The Chain to share her quality control knowledge and experience of adopting a quality-by-design approach for assays. We discuss how the focus of her QC work has changed through the years, and what kind of challenges she foresees as the cell and gene therapy fields move forward. Ms. Sajjadi talks about consulting with clients who are developing cutting edge therapies and explains her approach of creating a “culture of quality” within scientific organizations to lead to more su...
Jun 25, 2021•27 min•Season 2Ep. 36
In this episode, Dr. Willem Overwijk returns for a conversation with Dr. Éric Vivier. Dr. Vivier is a professor of immunology at Aix-Marseille and a hospital practitioner at Marseille Public University Hospital. Éric Vivier is also the Chief Scientific Officer at Innate Pharma, a clinical-stage biotech company that creates novel antibodies that activate the immune system to treat patients with cancer. They discuss Dr. Vivier’s scientific background, the importance and the potential of Natural Ki...
Jun 10, 2021•37 min•Season 2Ep. 35
This episode of The Chain features a live panel discussion moderated by Erica Ollmann Saphire, PhD of La Jolla Institute for Immunology. Expert panelists from academia and government assess the COVID-19 antibody and vaccine development thus far, including what did and did not go well during the pandemic. They also look towards the future and the role mRNA vaccines may play for diseases like influenza, what we learned about the United States’ ability to manufacture during surge production, and wh...
May 28, 2021•41 min•Season 2Ep. 34
The Center for Structural Genomics of Infectious Diseases at Northwestern University was prepared for COVID-19 long before the United States economy shut down. Now over a year since COVID-19 was first recorded in the U.S., co-director Dr. Karla Satchell speaks with The Chain about the role of structural genomics in preparing for disease outbreak and response. Karla Satchell, PhD, Professor, Microbiology; Principal Investigator and Co-Director, Center for Structural Genomics of Infectious Disease...
May 14, 2021•17 min•Season 2Ep. 33
Linoleic acid is an essential free fatty acid in the human body and its metabolic pathway is central to immune regulation and inflammation – which are also key symptoms in COVID-19. Using cryo-electron microscopy, Christine Toelzer’s research identified linoleic acid bound to a hydrophobic pocket of the SARS-CoV-2 glycoprotein. Christine shares her thoughts on how these findings will contribute to the fight against COVID-19 and how her lab work has been altered by the pandemic. Christine also di...
May 07, 2021•13 min•Season 2Ep. 32
In this episode we talk with Dennis Karthaus of IBA Lifesciences about his early science interests and pursing his PhD. His passion for marine biology eventually led him on a path to study biotechnology, where he now focuses on protein expression and purification. Specifically, tag-based purification that can help researchers increase lab productivity. But, as our guest explains, scientists should consider their specific bottlenecks and applications for the protein of interest, to determine if a...
Apr 30, 2021•33 min•Season 2Ep. 31
In a roundtable discussion, three experts bring perspectives on different methods for generating antibodies, including generating antibodies from naive libraries, patients, and immunizations. They discuss how the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the advantages of refocusing on infectious disease research. As well as the importance of having ready immune libraries and immunized mice, plus other approaches, ahead of any future infectious disease outbreak.
Apr 16, 2021•1 hr•Season 2Ep. 30
The purification requirements in the biopharmaceutical industry will be even more demanding in the coming years due to increased awareness of product-related impurities like oligomers, variants, positional isomers, and glycoforms. These impurities need to be separated from the final product. Dr. Raja Ghosh’s work focuses on the design and development of efficient chromatography devices that combine high-speed with high-resolution in separation. He speaks with Dr. David Wood of the Ohio State Uni...
Apr 02, 2021•33 min•Season 2Ep. 29
On this episode of The Chain, Dr. Willem Overwijk shares his personal experience of his recent transition from academia to industry, and the differences between the two. Dr. Overwijk moved to industry, in part, to follow his research interest in a specific molecule that he had been working on since graduate studies: interleukin-2. Thanks to advances in protein engineering, this once ultra-potent molecule now can be administered with lower toxicity while still being an effective cancer therapy. W...
Mar 19, 2021•31 min•Season 2Ep. 18
Dr. Dimiter Dimitrov, Director of the Center for Antibody Therapeutics at the University of Pittsburgh, sits down with The Chain to discuss his research and its relevance to the current pandemic. His work focuses on human VH domains, which in contrast to the animal antibody domains, like llama and shark, may have lower probability of immunogenicity. Dr. Dimitrov helps develop several such domains, most recently against SARS2, and one of which that is in production for evaluation in human clinica...
Mar 05, 2021•26 min•Season 2Ep. 27
Dan Chen returns for the Science Commune segment and speaks with Dr. Peter Marks, Director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER). Dr. Marks reflects on his fortuitous path from academia to industry to government, plus the differences between each area. Dr. Marks explains the research and regulatory role of CBER, especially as it pertains to the latest cell therapies. And finally, the two discuss the impressive speed of COVID-19 vaccine science breakthroughs and regulat...
Feb 19, 2021•32 min•Season 2Ep. 26
Christian Klein is a longtime and key member of the protein and antibody community. In this episode, he speaks with Executive Conference Producer, Christina Lingham, on how the field has changed since their first collaboration. Dr. Klein offers an overview of the latest applications of bispecific antibodies, including the latest progress of clinical trials by Roche and others. He also explains how the PD1-X molecule is unique and can increase specificity of therapeutics even more.
Feb 05, 2021•15 min•Season 2Ep. 25
There are no bad ideas in developing bioanalytical testing, says Jim McNally, CSO of BioAgilytix. Not all ideas will work, of course. But he has found that it is the outside-the-box ideas that often turn out to be the solution in challenging assay work. Dr. McNally speaks with The Chain about his background in bioanalytical testing and supporting clinical trials, the exciting future of cell and gene therapies, and the importance of setting precedent in bioanalysis of these new, life-saving thera...
Jan 22, 2021•28 min•Season 2Ep. 24
There are some proteins that still evade scientists in the race for better therapeutics. Some of the most elusive drug targets in cancer research are RAS oncoproteins. In a paper published this July, researchers demonstrated the delivery of an extremely potent pan-RAS-cleaving enzyme, opening the door for the first targeted pan-RAS inhibitor for cancer therapy. In this episode we speak with two of the researchers from this project, a cancer biologist and a protein engineer, to learn what sparked...
Jan 08, 2021•22 min•Season 2Ep. 23
Carolyn Bertozzi grew up in a science family with a physicist father. But it was organic chemistry that “clicked” for Carolyn and started her down the path of understanding biology at a molecular level. Daniel Chen and Carolyn Bertozzi discuss her work in glycobiology. Bertozzi’s research finds that glycosylation has consequences in immune modulation, and that glycobiology plays an important role in human disease that has historically been underexploited in drug development. Finally, Chen and Be...
Dec 18, 2020•25 min•Season 1Ep. 22
What was science like before the shift to big data technology? How did biologists learn about cells before we could do high throughput gene analysis? What we can learn about how to problem solve from those who helped get us to where we are today? In this Science Commune episode, Dr. Rik Derynck helps us answer those questions by sharing his stories as a young scientist in the “primitive” early days of cell biology. Derynck talks about his work on TGF-β and how his early pursuit of the unknown he...
Dec 04, 2020•17 min•Season 1Ep. 21
In this Science Commune segment, Dr. Daniel Chen and Dr. Pablo Umaña discuss what it means to be both a scientist and an engineer while utilizing principles from both disciplines to solve problems and advance innovation.
Jul 08, 2020•11 min•Season 1Ep. 20
Dr. David Wood is working on novel technology with self-cleaving tags, but he knows the importance of failure in the grand scheme of success, as well as mentorship, making your own way, and going your own speed.
Jun 25, 2020•34 min•Season 1Ep. 19
Sara Mangsbo is Entrepreneur of the Year, but her journey to success is much more than one title or one year. She shares the process and her biggest takeaways of building a company that is developing novel immunotherapies to fight cancer.
May 01, 2020•18 min•Season 1Ep. 18
In the fight against Coronavirus, there have been many calls for widespread testing. Dr. Nathan Ledeboer explains the power diagnostic testing has when combatting a pandemic, and the importance for collaboration in innovation during this time.
Apr 22, 2020•16 min•Season 1Ep. 17
The coronavirus has swept the globe, bringing governments, economies, and society to its knees. Infectious disease expert, Dr. Rita Rio discusses current suppression policies and long-term implications for the public, as well as healthcare systems and the scientific community.
Apr 09, 2020•14 min•Season 1Ep. 16
Today’s episode features a conversation with Dr. Tatiana Novobrantseva, Co-Founder and CSO of Verseau Therapeutics. In this interview, we discuss five trends in the development of cancer immunotherapies and how these will impact patients and biopharmaceutical research and development.
Mar 18, 2020•23 min•Season 1Ep. 15
