OM DENNE EPISODE
Dr. Eugene Chan, Chairman and Co-Founder of Abpro, talks about the next generation of antibody therapies that can target more than one target to activate the immune system in the fight against cancer. Abpro is also working on a prophylactic antibody therapy to help prevent immunocompromised patients from getting COVID.
Eugene explains, "Abpro has developed the antibodies, in a lot of these cases, to be able to target more than one target. This basically activates the immune system more so that whatever you're targeting is cleared more rapidly from the body. This applies to the cases of cancer that we are focused on, and we've basically developed these antibodies called bispecific antibodies - bi for targeting two different sites. These antibodies essentially have more and greater activity than conventional antibodies."
"We developed a program and antibodies that bind to HER2+, which is one of the molecular markers on breast and gastric cancers. This particular therapy brings the immune system, the body's own natural immune system, to these cancer cells in a very active manner, which then allows it to get cleared from the body much sooner than the other mono-specific therapies that are currently out there."
"Monoclonal antibodies are the body's own natural defense system for a lot of diseases. The ability to take these and augment and make them better is really the way to go because, ultimately, the body is already accustomed to these types of molecules. So we know to some degree they're safe. When compared to things like chemotherapy or even radiotherapy, these things are going to be much safer because they naturally exist in some way, shape or form in the body when you're fighting a disease or when your body's exposed to a new antigen or some sort of new threat. We're taking this approach and enhancing the body's ability to fight cancer and infection by augmenting the structure of these molecules."
#Abpro #Antibodies #MonoclonalAntibodies #Cancer #Tumors #COVID #HER2+
