Cambridge Healthtech Institute Training Seminars offer real-life case studies, problems encountered and solutions applied, along with extensive coverage of the academic theory and background. Each Training Seminar offers a mix of formal lecture and interactive discussions and activities to maximize the learning experience. These Training Seminars are led by experienced instructors who will focus on content applicable to your current research and provide important guidance for those new to their fields.

MONDAY, JANUARY 20 - TUESDAY, JANUARY 21

TS9A: Introduction to Antibody Engineering 

Aqua 303

DAY 1: MONDAY

9:00 am - 6:00 pm Seminar Sessions

12:45 - 1:30 pm Lunch Provided
6:00 - 7:15 pm Welcome Reception in the Exhibit Hall with Poster Viewing

DAY 2: TUESDAY

8:45 am - 12:30 pm Seminar Sessions

Exhibit Hall Refreshment Breaks also provided.

Instructors:

Andrew R.M. Bradbury, MB BS, PhD, CSO, Specifica, Inc.

James D. Marks, MD, PhD, Chief of Performance Excellence, Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center; Professor of Anesthesia, UCSF Department of Anesthesia and Perioperative Care

In this training seminar, students will learn about antibody basics, including structure, genetics, and the generation of diversity, as well as the generation of potential therapeutic antibodies. This latter part will include antibody humanization, affinity and specificity maturation, display technologies, creation of naïve libraries, and antibody characterization. The seminar will be fully interactive, providing students with ample opportunities to discuss technology with instructors.

Antibody Background

• Structure
• Genes
• Generation of diversity (recombination, somatic hypermutations)

Antibody Humanization

• Closest human gene approach
• Minimal modification approach
• Veneering

Display Technologies Overview

• Phage
• Yeast
• Combining phage and yeast display
• Ribosome
• Others

Generation of Naïve Antibody Libraries

• Natural libraries (methods, quality control)
• Synthetic libraries (including strategies for generation diversity)

Affinity Maturation

• Error-prone PCR
• Chain shuffling
• CDR targeted mutations

Next-Generation Sequencing in Antibody Engineering

• Platforms: advantages and disadvantages
• Error rates and why they’re important
• Naïve library diversity analysis
• Selection analysis

Antibody Characterization and Developability

• Expression
• Specificity
• Aggregation
• Solubility

Instructors:

Andrew R.M. Bradbury, MB BS, PhD, CSO, Specifica, Inc.

Andrew Bradbury was trained in medicine at the universities of Oxford and London, and subsequently practiced medicine for five years (one full-time, and four part-time) in the UK. He received his PhD (Cambridge University) in the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology under the guidance of Dr. Cesar Milstein. After his PhD he spent 10 years in Italy: three years as a post doc in the CNR Institute of neurobiology, Rome, Italy; and seven years in Trieste, where he was first visiting professor, and subsequently tenured as assistant professor at the International School for Advanced Studies (SISSA, Trieste, Italy). He was a staff scientist and group leader at Los Alamos National Lab from July 1999 to June 2017, when he left to join Specifica, a startup he founded that specializes in antibody selections and selling unique antibody libraries. He has worked in the field of phage display and antibody engineering for 25 years and has helped organize over forty international congresses and practical courses in this field, both in Europe and the US. He has published over 130 peer-reviewed articles, including a number of reviews and commentaries on phage display and antibody engineering. He is one of the founding members of “The Antibody Society” and is on the editorial board of three journals.

James D. Marks, MD, PhD, Chief of Performance Excellence, Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center; Professor of Anesthesia, UCSF Department of Anesthesia and Perioperative Care

Dr. James D. Marks co-founded Hermes Biosciences, Inc. and serves as its Vice President of Antibody Discovery. Dr. Marks serves as the Chief of Anesthesia at San Francisco General Hospital, and also serves as Professor of Anesthesia and Pharmaceutical Chemistry at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). Dr. Marks serves as Vice-Chairman of the Department of Anesthesia and Perioperative Care at UCSF. Director of the Medical-Surgical Intensive Care Unit, San Francisco General Hospital. Dr. Marks served as Chairman of Medical Advisory Board at Symphogen A/S. Dr. Marks has been a Member of Scientific Advisory Board at Adimab, LLC since 2007. Dr. Marks serves as a Member of the Scientific Advisory Board at Quinnova Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and Merrimack Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Dr. Marks is a Program Member of UCSF Comprehensive Cancer Center at University of California, San Francisco. Dr. Mark' s research interests include the development of phage display technology for production of human antibodies and the development of techniques for increasing antibody affinity. He serves as Director of HERMES Biosciences, Inc. He serves as Member of Scientific Advisory Board of ImaginAb, Inc. He serves as Director of Silver Creek Pharmaceuticals, Inc. He has published more than 75 scientific papers and acts as a referee for top-ranking international journals including Nature Biotechnology, Nature Medicine, Journal of Molecular Biology, Gene, Blood, and Human Antibodies and Hybridomas. Dr. Marks is the co-inventor on 4 major phage display patents. He holds a PhD from the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, UK on the making of human antibody fragments in bacteria and bacteriophage. He is board certified in Internal Medicine, Anesthesia, and Critical Care Medicine. He was an undergraduate at the University of California Berkeley majoring in biochemistry and received his medical degree from UCSF. He completed residencies in Internal Medicine and Anesthesia as well as a fellowship in Critical Care Medicine, all at UCSF.

WHAT IS A TRAINING SEMINAR?

Each CHI Training Seminar offers 1.5 days of instruction, refreshment breaks, exhibit hall functions, and lunch for all registered attendees on the full day of the class. Each person registered for the Training Seminar will be provided with a hard copy handbook for the Training Seminar in which they are registered. A limited number of additional handbooks may be available for other delegates. CHI encourages track hopping between conference programs, and we ask that Training Seminars not be disturbed once they have begun. We ask that attendees commit to attending the entire 1.5-day training, and not engage in track hopping once the class has started.