Events

Location: Lobby
Time: 3:30 PM - 6:30 PM

Roche has a remarkable legacy in the identification and development of therapeutic antibodies and novel antibody scaffolds. We constantly seek to improve and complement our expertise by identifying and working with external partners in related technology areas. One of these areas is in the development of bispecific antibodies. The platform offers tremendous promise - to potentially localize a response, or to apply in multi-modal targeting – but also brings several significant challenges, including:

• The prediction of human disease relevant pharmacology and PK/PD from in vitro and in vivo systems
• Targeting the activity to the desired cellular compartment: What are innovative activation principles for antibodies at site of action, novel technologies enabling endosomal escape of proteins and/ or payload, technologies impacting the in vivo bio-distribution and/or circulation of antibodies.

This Event will be an opportunity for scientists and researchers in this space – across academia and biotech - to discuss these challenges as well as meet & greet the Roche LMR group.

Agenda:

3:30pm - Registration
4:00pm - Roche Introduction
4:05pm - Taking Complex Biologics to the Next Stage*
4:25pm - UniTI™ Platform Technology: Mix-and-Match Simplicity for Engineering of Multi-functional Protein Therapeutics**
4:45pm - Targeting Glyco-immune Checkpoints in Cancer with EAGLE Technology***
5:05pm - Speed Networking

Speakers:

*Stefan Weigand, PhD, has been with Roche since 2005. He is currently Head of Large Molecule Research (LMR) at Roche pRED, responsible for Roche’s industry-leading efforts in biologics from concept to clinic. Prior to taking on this role in 2015, Stefan was Head of Biochemical and Analytical Research for Biologics, overseeing the tailored, phase-dependent analytical and biochemical support of all LMR projects across the value chain. Before, he held several roles with increasing responsibility in Discovery Oncology and External Innovation.

Prior to joining Roche in 2005, Stefan led Medicinal Chemistry groups and projects at Bayer Health Care, with responsibility for Bayer’s global combinatorial chemistry activities. Under his leadership, five new compounds were advanced into clinical testing – the most advanced being Adempas® (riociguat) that was approved and launched in 2013.

Stefan is a chemist by training (Universities of Würzburg and Göttingen) and has completed his postdoctoral studies as a Humboldt Fellow at Stanford University, California. He has authored/co-authored more than 50 publications and patents and is a frequent keynote speaker at international conferences in the antibody engineering field.

**Andreas Loew, founded Elstar Therapeutics after an outstanding career of scientific discovery and drug development leadership. For over 14 years, Andreas served in positions of increasing responsibility at Abbott Bioresearch Center (ABC) and at the Novartis Institute for Biomedical Research (NIBR). As the executive director of NIBR Biologics, New Technologies, he managed a global research laboratory focused on the design, selection, and validation of protein therapeutics. Among his many contributions, he implemented a discovery platform for chimeric antigen receptors (CAR) for cancer immunotherapy, designed multi-functional therapeutic proteins and antibodies, and directed R&D efforts for nanoparticle delivery of mRNA. In recognition of his scientific achievements he received the Novartis VIVA (Vision, Innovation, Value, Achievement) award as one of the company’s leading scientists in 2014.

He is named as an inventor on more than 180 patents in fields that include engineered CAR-T cells, bispecific antibodies, therapeutic proteins, non-antibody protein scaffolds, yeast display, RNA guided gene editing technologies, and small molecule kinase inhibitors.

Andreas earned his Ph.D. in Biochemistry at the University of Bayreuth, Germany, and has held research positions at the University of Texas, University of Illinois, and Birkbeck College, London.

***Li Peng, is a VP of Biotherapeutics Discovery at Palleon Pharmaceuticals, a leading biotechnology company focused on developing Glyco-Immune Checkpoint inhibitors to treat cancer. Previously, she worked at Medimmune/AstraZeneca for about 10 years with increasing responsibilities from antibody engineering and characterization to leading drug discovery programs and cross-functional project teams. Li’s doctoral research focused on developing novel cancer-targeting peptidomimetics for acute lymphoblastic leukemia at UC Davis Cancer Center. Li has a PhD in Biochemistry, MS in Genetics, and BS in Biology. She has published ~30 papers and 4 patents.