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SUMMARY:EPFL BioE Talks SERIES  "Droplet Microfluidics in Antibody Discove
 ry\, Immune Repertoire Sequencing and Personalized Cancer Therapy"
DTSTART:20201019T163000
DTEND:20201019T170000
DTSTAMP:20260919T212741Z
UID:0471595606fa68023f6e1321a7ad808ca99b768200f1b0678ab57e9b
CATEGORIES:Conferences - Seminars
DESCRIPTION:Prof. Christoph Merten\, Institute of Bioengineering\, EPFL\, 
 Lausanne (CH)\nWEEKLY EPFL BIOE TALKS SERIES\n\n(note that this talk is nu
 mber two of a double-feature seminar - see details of the first talk here)
 \n\nAbstract:\nWe have developed fully integrated droplet-based microfluid
 ic platforms for the screening of therapeutic antibodies. In these systems
  tiny aqueous droplets (picoliter volumes) surrounded by oil serve as inde
 pendent assay vessels. The technology allows the direct screening of sever
 al hundred thousand primary\, non-immortalized murine or even human B-cell
 s for the secretion of antibodies that do not just bind to a drug target\,
  but functionally inhibit it. Furthermore\, we have established advanced s
 ingle-cell antibody sequencing protocols enabling the screening of immune 
 repertoires of COVID-19 infected patients for neutralizing antibodies. Tak
 en together this should open the way for many new approaches in drug disco
 very\, including personalized immunotherapy or the use of antibodies to co
 ntrol cellular pathways at will.\nIn parallel to this we have developed sc
 reening platforms enabling rapid identification of optimal drug cocktails 
 for personalized cancer therapy. Results are available within 24h after su
 rgery at consumables costs of less than 150 US$ per screen. The power of t
 his platform has been demonstrated using cancer cell lines\, xenograft mou
 se models and even human tumor biopsies. We now envisage first clinical tr
 ials and the establishment of a startup company making the technology wide
 ly available.\n\nBio:\n\n	Studies of biochemistry and organic chemistry at
  the University of Frankfurt\, Germany (1999-2004)\n	PhD at the Paul Ehrli
 ch Institut Langen\, Germany\, on "directed evolution of of gene therapy v
 ectors" (2004)\n	Postdoc in Cambridge UK and Strasbourg France on non-micr
 ofluidic droplet technology and applications (2004-2005)\n	Junior group le
 ader focussing on droplet microfluidics in Strasbourg (Liebig Award of the
  Fonds of the German Chemical Industry 2005-2009)\, after a short internsh
 ip in Dave Weitz lab (Harvard)\n	Group Leader at the European Molecular Bi
 ology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg\, Germany\, developing droplet micro
 fluidics for biomedical applications (2010-2019)\n	2017: Sole scientific f
 ounder of Velabs Therapeutics (a microfluidic antibody discovery startup)\
 n	2020 Associate Professor at EPFL\, and Adjunct Scientist at the Ludwig I
 nstitute for Cancer Research (Lausanne Branch)\n	Coordinator of the TheraM
 e! Personalized Cancer Therapy Consortium.\n\n\n\nZoom link (with registra
 tion) for attending remotely: https://go.epfl.ch/EPFLBioETalks\n\n\nIMPORT
 ANT NOTICE: due to restrictions resulting from the ongoing Covid-19 situat
 ion\, this seminar can be followed via Zoom web-streaming only\, following
  prior one-time registration through the link above.
LOCATION:via Zoom web-streaming only\, due to Covid-19 situation https://g
 o.epfl.ch/EPFLBioETalks https://go.epfl.ch/EPFLBioETalks
STATUS:CONFIRMED
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