Abstract
Now in its 23rd and 10th years, respectively, the Antibody Engineering and Antibody Therapeutics conferences are the Annual Meeting of The Antibody Society. The scientific program covers the full spectrum of challenges in antibody research and development from basic science through clinical development. In this preview of the conferences, the chairs provide their thoughts on sessions that will allow participants to track emerging trends in (1) the development of next-generation immunomodulatory antibodies; (2) the complexity of the environment in which antibodies must function; (3) antibody-targeted central nervous system (CNS) therapies that cross the blood brain barrier; (4) the extension of antibody half-life for improved efficacy and pharmacokinetics (PK)/pharmacodynamics (PD); and (5) the application of next generation DNA sequencing to accelerate antibody research. A pre-conference workshop on Sunday, December 2, 2012 will update participants on recent intellectual property (IP) law changes that affect antibody research, including biosimilar legislation, the America Invents Act and recent court cases. Keynote presentations will be given by Andreas Plückthun (University of Zürich), who will speak on engineering receptor ligands with powerful cellular responses; Gregory Friberg (Amgen Inc.), who will provide clinical updates of bispecific antibodies; James D. Marks (University of California, San Francisco), who will discuss a systems approach to generating tumor targeting antibodies; Dario Neri (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zürich), who will speak about delivering immune modulators at the sites of disease; William M. Pardridge (University of California, Los Angeles), who will discuss delivery across the blood-brain barrier; and Peter Senter (Seattle Genetics, Inc.), who will present his vision for the future of antibody-drug conjugates. For more information on these meetings or to register to attend, please visit www.IBCLifeSciences.com/AntibodyEng or call 800-390-4078. Members of The Antibody Society and mAbs journal subscribers receive a 20% discount for meeting registration. To obtain this discount, email kdostie@ibcusa.com. mAbs is the official therapeutics journal of The Antibody Society and offers a discounted subscription to Society members for $49.