Webinar: IgM Antibodies and Other Alternative Frameworks: Promise and Progress
April 26, 2023
Scientific innovations and advancements in antibody-based therapies, including alternative approaches using IgE, IgA, and IgM antibodies, are paving the way towards a new era of antibody medicines. Further development of new approaches beyond traditional IgG based efforts, may allow more patients with serious diseases to benefit. Early efforts to utilize these antibodies, with a focus on IgM, were challenging but significant progress has been made recently which highlights their potential as new therapeutic platforms.
IgM antibodies have a unique structure that addresses many of the limitations of traditional bivalent IgG antibodies. With 10 binding sites and a J-chain that can interact with different receptors, engineered IgM antibodies represent a new class of potential therapeutics that combine multivalency, high avidity, and high specificity.
These attributes have enabled the development of IgM antibodies that can more effectively bind and cluster receptors for induction of apoptosis, including IgM agonist of death receptor 5 (DR5), and bispecific T-cell engagers for treatment of solid and hematologic cancers, autoimmune/inflammatory diseases, and infectious diseases.
This webinar will discuss the unique attributes of these antibodies and the potential applications of this approach to address unmet needs and create new opportunities for patients.
Key Topics
- Discuss the use of larger, alternative isotypes including IgE, IgA, and IgM as therapeutic antibody candidate,
- Discuss advancements in IgM antibody development and history of engineering and therapeutic efforts,
- Review new approaches to agonist cell signaling and bispecific binding of disease-specific targets with engagement of T cells
- Present exciting clinical results that bring promise to realizing therapeutic potential of engineered IgM antibodies.
Speakers:
William (Bill) Strohl, PhD, President, BiStro Biotech Consulting LLC
Dr. William (Bill) Strohl has over 35 years of experience in biopharmaceutical research, including a 17-year academic career in academia at The Ohio State University. He has also led numerous R&D efforts within the pharmaceutical industry including Merck and Janssen. During his time at J&J, Dr. Strohl and his teams placed more than 30 highly innovative, novel biologics into development and initiated new areas of research in gene and cell therapy to augment the long-standing traditional efforts in antibodies and protein therapeutics. He has published over 140 papers as well as written and edited several reference textbooks including one on Therapeutic Antibody Engineering and Microbiology.
Bruce Keyt, PhD, Chief Scientific Officer at IGM Biosciences
Dr. Bruce Keyt is the Chief Scientific Officer of IGM Biosciences, a clinical stage biotechnology company based in Mountain View, California. He has led the research, early development and manufacturing efforts of IGM since 2012 and has helped develop IGM’s pipeline of engineered IgM antibodies. Dr. Keyt has over 40 years of experience in the biopharmaceutical industry including at Abgenix, Millennium Pharmaceuticals, and Genentech. He has made significant contributions to the discovery and development of a number of novel biologics including Vectabix, Avastin, Lucentis, TNKase-tPA, Activase-tPA and Kogenate Factor VIII. He has co-authored 60 scientific articles and is a co-inventor on more than 30 granted US patents. Dr. Keyt received a B.A. in Chemistry from Washington University in St. Louis and a Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Pharmacology from Tufts University School of Medicine.
bruce@igmbio.com
Moderator: Janice Reichert, PhD, Chief Operating Officer of The Antibody Society
Dr. Janice Reichert is the Chief Operating Officer of The Antibody Society and is an internationally recognized expert in the development of antibody therapeutics. She is Founder and Editor-in-Chief of mAbs, a peer-reviewed, PubMed-indexed biomedical journal that focuses on topics relevant to antibody research and development. Dr. Reichert has published extensively on development trends for antibody therapeutics, and she has presented her research results as an invited speaker at conferences held worldwide. She is co-editor of the Handbook of Therapeutic Antibodies, and serves on the editorial boards of several biomedical journals. Dr. Reichert received her PhD in Chemistry from the University of Pennsylvania and did her post-doctoral training at Harvard Medical School.
https://www.antibodysociety.org