The first virtual Symposium of the CPRIT Therapeutic Antibody Core

The annual symposium of the CPRIT Therapeutic Antibody Core took place on Friday, December 11, 2020, from 1:00 pm Central Time. For the safety of participants during the COVID-19 pandemic, the symposium was held online via WebEx. Speakers highlighted the core’s capacities and provided examples of successful core collaborations.

This past year, the development of advanced antibody modalities was a major focus of the Core’s work. These advanced antibody modalities include ADC (antibody-drug conjugates), bispecific antibodies, and antibodies for CAR-T (chimeric antigen receptor – T cell) constructs.

Three talks in the symposium described the core’s work with these key advanced modalities: ADC, bispecific, and antibodies for CAR-T. Core collaborator Dr. Kyoji Tsuchikama presented updates on antibody-drug conjugate linker technologies for combating drug resistance and tumor heterogeneity. Core scientist Dr. Peng Gao described the Core’s bispecific antibody platform. Dr. Andras Heczey, from the Baylor College of Medicine, will present a talk entitled “The Present and Future of CAR-T Cell-based Immunotherapies.”

The symposium also featured speakers Drs. Peng Zhao and Zhiqiang Ku addressing applications of Core resources for special applications: the delivery of antibodies across the blood-brain barrier and antibody therapies to combat COVID-19.

This was the Core’s fifth annual symposium and its first virtual symposium. Attendees over the years have included professors, postdocs, and students from Baylor College of Medicine, Rice University, the University of Houston, the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, and the Institute of Biosciences & Technology at Texas A&M Health Science Center, among other academic institutions. Representatives of companies and organizations supporting therapeutic antibody core activities have also attended these symposia, including representatives of Agilent, Iterion Therapeutics, Greenlight Clinical, CSPC Pharmaceutical Group, Genetivision Corporation, Sino Biological Inc, and the non-profits the Military & Health Research Foundation and the Gulf Coast Consortia.