SC 8: Selection, Screening and Engineering for Affinity Reagents
Thursday 15 November 2018, 17:30 – 20:30

Room Location: Room 3A
Julia Neugebauer, PhD, Director, MorphoSys AG

Birgit Dreier, PhD, Senior Scientist and Group Leader HT-BSF, Plückthun Lab, University of Zurich

Biologics such as recombinant antibodies and alternative binding scaffolds are routinely used in a wide variety of applications from basic research to clinical indications. This success has led to the development of a vast number of different selection, screening and engineering technologies for these molecules. This short course will give a comprehensive overview on different display technologies as well as screening approaches for the selection of specific binders. In addition, it will discuss engineering strategies including affinity maturation and how to implement these strategies. Classical antibodies and antibody fragments as well alternative binding scaffolds such as DARPins will be covered.

Benefits from attending this short course:

• Get an insight into different display technologies (Phage Display, Ribosome Display, Yeast Display), their advantages and their use
• Receive firsthand information about different screening technologies (high and medium throughput, plate-based vs. homogeneous assays, …) to identify specific binders
• Hear about validation techniques to investigate e.g. specificity, affinity and recognized epitopes
• Learn how to engineer your binder with respect to high affinity or species cross-reactivity

Julia Neugebauer, Ph.D., Director, MorphoSys AG

Dr. Julia Neugebauer currently holds the position of Director and Leader Discovery Programs at the MorphoSys AG, where she heads a team responsible for antibody discovery projects including target validation, antibody selections, and functional in vitro and in vivo characterization up to lead selection. Prior to that position Julia Neugebauer worked at MorphoSys as Project Team Leader for Customer Collaboration Projects. Altogether she has more than 12 years of experience in the field of antibody discovery and engineering. Julia Neugebauer studied biochemistry at the University of Regensburg and at the New York University and earned a PhD from the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität in Munich.

Birgit Dreier, PhD, Senior Scientist and Group Leader HT-BSF, Plückthun Lab, University of Zurich

Dr. Birgit Dreier has been Senior Scientist in the group of Prof. Dr. A. Plückthun at the Department of Biochemistry, University of Zurich, for more than 10 years and is responsible for the organization, optimization and selection of DARPin (Designed Ankyrin Repeat Proteins) and other scaffold binders and their validation. Here she recently expanded her focus and is leading the High Throughput-Binder Selection Facility (HT-BSF). Prior to this engagement she acquired a strong background in Phage Display using different protein scaffolds (e.g. Fab fragments and zinc finger domains) during her PhD at the Department of Genetics, University of Erlangen, and her postdoctoral training at The Scripps Research Institute, San Diego.