PEGS 2024 – Boston: Highlights and Event Recap

The 20th Annual PEGS Boston Summit 2024 was held in Boston, MA from May 13-17. During the event, industry experts from across the world gathered to share the latest research in advancements in drug development, protein and antibody engineering, immunotherapy, immunogenicity, expression platforms, multispecific antibodies, machine learning and AI in biologics, and more. Topics included: 

• Engineering

• Oncology

• Multispecifics

• Immunotherapy

• Expression

• Analytics

• Therapeutics

Biointron Summary Report:

1. Engineering Antibodies and Machine Learning Approaches

• Technologies to enable intelligent antibody discovery such as deep screening, advanced repertoire mining, and long-read sequencing were discussed.

• The integration of ML/AI into discovery platforms can overcome challenging targets such as ion channels.

• Engineered proteins can precisely correct pathogenic mutations in cells, animals, and patients through base editing and prime editing.

2. Antibodies for Cancer Therapy and ADCs

• Next-generation therapeutics platforms were shown, including Bicycle technology, Twin Fc-Immune Cell Engager platform, DARPin-Based Proteins, and HRPro Peroxidase

• Novel and re-emerging targets are CLDN6, GPC1, B7-H3, PIWIL1, LILRB1, NRP-1/OBR, CCR8+ Tregs, CXCR5, ROR1, and CD180.

• Antibody-drug conjugate technologies presented included GlycoConnect, ThioBridge, and Affilin Targeting.

3. Multispecific Antibodies

• Bispecific ADCs are increasing, including a METxMET ADC by Regeneron and a tetravalent EGFR x HER3 bsADC by SystImmune

• There are a variety of mechanisms using bsAbs, such as T cell-engaging antibodies, dual cell bidirectional antibodies, surrogate cytokine agonists, and TCR bispecifics.

4. Advances in Immunotherapy

• Cancer vaccines are advancing, such as Uni Penn’s synthetic vaccine which boosts CAR T cells through the chimeric receptor directly in vivo.

• Engineering smarter, safer CAR T therapies were discussed through insights from signaling biology and purification for reduced toxicity, as well as logic gates, image guided monitoring.

5. Difficult-to-Express Proteins

• Optimizing CHO cells for production of challenging biotherapeutics via establishment of new cell line platforms, glycoengineered CHO cells, and repressing expression of recombinant proteins during the selection process.

• Novel protein purification tools were demonstrated, with the highlights being North Carolina State University’s GET-VVIRAL and Nectagen’s nanoCLAMP Scaffold.

6. Biotherapeutic Analysis and Characterization

• Best practices for adopting and optimizing big data impacts in the analytical functions like enabling pipeline programs lead candidate selection and optimization through data structure, statistical analysis, and ML/AI.

• Characterization for novel biotherapeutics like conjugates and fusions were talked about including capillary gel electrophoresis for separation and charge detection-mass spectrometry. 

7. Emerging Indications for Therapeutic Antibodies

• Target IL-17A or IL-35 for autoimmune diseases; TDP-43 or AAV delivery for neurodegenerative diseases; GLP-1 or GIP for obesity. 

• mRNA therapeutics are a pioneering innovation, with a featured presentation Mount Sinai on a Specific Modified mRNA Translational System to treat breast cancer. 

• mRNA, LNPs, and synthetic biology can also be used for in vivo cell and gene engineering to reprogram the immune system. 

Thank you to everyone who visited our booth PEGS Boston to learn about our services! We had a fantastic time chatting with you and how it can help you achieve antibody development. Our expert team would be happy to answer any follow-up questions. Feel free to email us at info@biointron.com or visit our website at www.biointron.com.