Biotherapeutics represent a significant proportion of the currently available therapies for a broad spectrum of diseases and is one of the fastest growing markets. However, the development of new therapeutics and especially complex modalities comes with a series of challenges and risks.

One major hurdle in the therapeutic development is the risk for unwanted immunogenicity which can lead to decreased efficacy and safety concerns. Today, several in silico and in vitro tools are available to improve and accelerate therapeutic drug development in an early stage. A well balanced and rational development strategy can help to design less immunogenic drugs and reduce the number of clinical failures.

Sofie Pattyn

Sofie Pattyn (CTO and founder, ImmunXperts, a Q2 Solutions Company) has over 25 years of experience in the field of immunogenicity assessment (vaccines and biotherapeutics) and in vitro assay development with a focus on functional assays for immunogenicity, immune-oncology and Cell and Gene Therapy products. She has extensive hands-on lab experience and has managed and coached several In Vitro teams over the last decade. From 2008 till 2013 she was Head of the In Vitro Immunogenicity group at AlgoNomics (Ghent, Belgium) and Lonza Applied Protein Services (Cambridge, UK). Prior to that, she worked at Innogenetics, Belgium for over 15 years.