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SUMMARY:VHH-Fc Drug Formats Manufacturable in OPENPichia Yeast for Pandemi
 c Preparedness
DTSTART:20240111T140000
DTEND:20240111T150000
DTSTAMP:20260924T105515Z
UID:2ecdd337d35b05954fdb044a81f28125af01a1e081798286cb3eb9d2
CATEGORIES:Conferences - Seminars
DESCRIPTION:Prof. Nico Callewaert\, VIB-UGent Center for Medical Biotechno
 logy\, Ghent (BE)\nBIOENGINEERING SEMINAR\n \nAbout the speaker and his r
 esearch:\nNico Callewaert is full professor of biochemistry and biotechnol
 ogy at Ghent University and scientific director for VIB’s Center for Med
 ical Biotechnology\, in which 125 scientists in 8 research groups work to 
 innovate biomedical molecular analytics and bio-engineering. His lab has l
 ongstanding expertise in liquid biopsy technology development\, with Glyco
 LiverProfile for early cirrhosis detection and HCC risk prediction based o
 n serum protein glycosylation profiling being introduced in the clinic. Cu
 rrent bioanalytical technology development focuses on easily implementable
  circulating free DNA methylome profiling and glycoproteomic tumor biomark
 er discovery as well as single molecule peptide identification. In synthet
 ic biology\, Nico’s lab has 20 years of track record on pathway engineer
 ing in the eukaryotic secretory system to customize biopharmaceutical (pro
 duction) cells\, especially through glycosylation modifications. This resu
 lted e.g. in the GlycoSwitch glycan humanization system in Pichia pastoris
 \, allowing e.g. to manufacture human-like antibodies in yeast. Other yeas
 t glyco-engineering technology allowed to start Oxyrane (Ghent\, Belgium)\
 , which develops improved lysosomal enzyme replacement therapies\, and the
  lab continues to innovate in lysosome-targeted drug development. Current 
 synbio projects are in glyco-engineering of mammalian cells (a.o. GlycoDel
 ete technology)\, massively parallel protein secretability assessment with
  predictive deep learning modeling\, and oral delivery of biopharmaceutica
 ls\, including antibodies (startup: animab.com). Starting in Jan. 2020\, t
 ogether with Xavier Saelens\, we speed-developed VHH-Fc antibodies against
  spots on the SARS-CoV-2 spike that are difficult to bind to by human anti
 bodies at high affinity\, building on ongoing work on influenza and RSV. S
 ome of these are being clinically evaluated (startup ExeVir.com). Given sc
 alable microbial manufacturability of these antibodies\, the concept is de
 ployed to other infectious disease targets. Other innovations being pursue
 d at present are improved methods for methylation-based liquid biopsy\, en
 hanced engineering of therapeutic T-cells and low-cost production of antib
 ody-drug conjugates. Nico is a recipient of the Marie Curie Excellence Gra
 nt (2005-2009)\, the ERC Consolidator Grant (2014-2019) and the ERC Advanc
 ed Grant (2023-2028). He presently is a grantee of the Bill and Melinda Ga
 tes Foundation and received the Hepatology award of the Royal Academy of M
 edicine\, Belgium. He is inventor of more than 200 patent applications in 
 >35 different families.\n\n\n\n\nZoom link for attending remotely: https:/
 /epfl.zoom.us/j/67704497782
LOCATION:SV 1717 https://plan.epfl.ch/?room==SV%201717 https://epfl.zoom.u
 s/j/67704497782
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