VHH-Fc Drug Formats Manufacturable in OPENPichia Yeast for Pandemic Preparedness
Event details
| Date | 11.01.2024 |
| Hour | 14:00 › 15:00 |
| Speaker | Prof. Nico Callewaert, VIB-UGent Center for Medical Biotechnology, Ghent (BE) |
| Location | Online |
| Category | Conferences - Seminars |
| Event Language | English |
BIOENGINEERING SEMINAR
About the speaker and his research:
Nico Callewaert is full professor of biochemistry and biotechnology at Ghent University and scientific director for VIB’s Center for Medical Biotechnology, in which 125 scientists in 8 research groups work to innovate biomedical molecular analytics and bio-engineering. His lab has longstanding expertise in liquid biopsy technology development, with GlycoLiverProfile for early cirrhosis detection and HCC risk prediction based on serum protein glycosylation profiling being introduced in the clinic. Current bioanalytical technology development focuses on easily implementable circulating free DNA methylome profiling and glycoproteomic tumor biomarker discovery as well as single molecule peptide identification. In synthetic biology, Nico’s lab has 20 years of track record on pathway engineering in the eukaryotic secretory system to customize biopharmaceutical (production) cells, especially through glycosylation modifications. This resulted e.g. in the GlycoSwitch glycan humanization system in Pichia pastoris, allowing e.g. to manufacture human-like antibodies in yeast. Other yeast 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. GlycoDelete technology), massively parallel protein secretability assessment with predictive deep learning modeling, and oral delivery of biopharmaceuticals, including antibodies (startup: animab.com). Starting in Jan. 2020, together 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 antibodies at high affinity, building on ongoing work on influenza and RSV. Some of these are being clinically evaluated (startup ExeVir.com). Given scalable microbial manufacturability of these antibodies, the concept is deployed to other infectious disease targets. Other innovations being pursued at present are improved methods for methylation-based liquid biopsy, enhanced engineering of therapeutic T-cells and low-cost production of antibody-drug conjugates. Nico is a recipient of the Marie Curie Excellence Grant (2005-2009), the ERC Consolidator Grant (2014-2019) and the ERC Advanced Grant (2023-2028). He presently is a grantee of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and received the Hepatology award of the Royal Academy of Medicine, Belgium. He is inventor of more than 200 patent applications in >35 different families.
Zoom link for attending remotely: https://epfl.zoom.us/j/67704497782
About the speaker and his research:
Nico Callewaert is full professor of biochemistry and biotechnology at Ghent University and scientific director for VIB’s Center for Medical Biotechnology, in which 125 scientists in 8 research groups work to innovate biomedical molecular analytics and bio-engineering. His lab has longstanding expertise in liquid biopsy technology development, with GlycoLiverProfile for early cirrhosis detection and HCC risk prediction based on serum protein glycosylation profiling being introduced in the clinic. Current bioanalytical technology development focuses on easily implementable circulating free DNA methylome profiling and glycoproteomic tumor biomarker discovery as well as single molecule peptide identification. In synthetic biology, Nico’s lab has 20 years of track record on pathway engineering in the eukaryotic secretory system to customize biopharmaceutical (production) cells, especially through glycosylation modifications. This resulted e.g. in the GlycoSwitch glycan humanization system in Pichia pastoris, allowing e.g. to manufacture human-like antibodies in yeast. Other yeast 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. GlycoDelete technology), massively parallel protein secretability assessment with predictive deep learning modeling, and oral delivery of biopharmaceuticals, including antibodies (startup: animab.com). Starting in Jan. 2020, together 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 antibodies at high affinity, building on ongoing work on influenza and RSV. Some of these are being clinically evaluated (startup ExeVir.com). Given scalable microbial manufacturability of these antibodies, the concept is deployed to other infectious disease targets. Other innovations being pursued at present are improved methods for methylation-based liquid biopsy, enhanced engineering of therapeutic T-cells and low-cost production of antibody-drug conjugates. Nico is a recipient of the Marie Curie Excellence Grant (2005-2009), the ERC Consolidator Grant (2014-2019) and the ERC Advanced Grant (2023-2028). He presently is a grantee of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and received the Hepatology award of the Royal Academy of Medicine, Belgium. He is inventor of more than 200 patent applications in >35 different families.
Zoom link for attending remotely: https://epfl.zoom.us/j/67704497782
Practical information
- Informed public
- Free