John Desjarlais on bispecific antibodies
From Antibodies! Ep. 2: Fc Engineering & Bispecifics with John Desjarlais · · The Antibody Society
“Based on that paper, since we're talking about bispecific antibodies, there is another gold rush going on deploying T-cell engager bispecific antibodies where you're targeting a B-cell antigen like in fact San Cor's got a CD20, a CD19 program. Other folks are going after BCMA. The idea being that those B cells are greatly contributing to the pathogenesis of these autoimmune diseases. And if we can target the right populations of B cells, we can not only hopefully put that patient into remission because we're getting rid of that hyperactive component of the immune response, but if you translate from what Yorge Schett had shown, potentially even resetting the immune system for a long period of time so that your pathogenic B cell populations are now replaced by naive B cells that aren't auto-reactive.”
On , John Desjarlais, Executive Vice President of Research & Chief Scientific Officer at XENCOR INC, spoke about bispecific antibodies during Antibodies! Ep. 2: Fc Engineering & Bispecifics with John Desjarlais on The Antibody Society.
About John Desjarlais
John Desjarlais, Executive Vice President of Research and Chief Scientific Officer at Xencor, appeared on the Antibodies! podcast recorded at the Antibody Engineering & Therapeutics conference in San Diego. During the conversation, Desjarlais discussed the application of T-cell engager bispecific antibodies in autoimmune disease, citing a paper by Georg Schett on CD19 CAR-T therapy for autoimmune conditions. He described a "gold rush" in deploying T-cell engager bispecific antibodies targeting B-cell antigens such as CD20, CD19, and BCMA, based on the hypothesis that B cells contribute to the pathogenesis of autoimmune diseases. Desjarlais noted that the field is working to determine the optimal depth and durability of B-cell depletion to achieve an "immune reset" while allowing the immune system to recover. Desjarlais also addressed challenges in using T-cell engagers for solid tumors, stating that the biggest challenge is not the immunoenvironment or T-cell presence, but rather the identification of highly selective targets that are overexpressed on tumor cells. He suggested that tri-specific antibodies targeting two tumor antigens could improve selectivity by requiring T cells to kill only when both targets are present, though he acknowledged technical challenges in developing such molecules with good developability and half-life.