Yemi Onakunle | Founder And Chief Executive Officer
MabSwitch Inc
Dr Yemi Onakunle is an accomplished biopharmaceutical industry expert with over twenty-five years of experience. He is the co-founder and CEO of Mabswitch Inc., a company focused on developing regulatable next-generation immunotherapies based on antibody affinity switches. Prior to Mabswitch, he served as the Chief Business Officer at Selexis SA where he executed numerous licensing and partnership deals valued at over $1 billion. Dr Onakunle also served in executive business development positions at top CDMOs and biopharmaceutical companies worldwide, including Lonza, Diosynth Biotechnologies, and Merck. He holds a PhD in Microbiology from the University of Kent and an MBA from Imperial College in the UK.
Appearances:
Festival of Biologics Day 1 @ 17:10
Controlling Antibody Affinity to Enhance Immunotherapy Safety and Efficacy
While modern immunotherapies have achieved remarkable success in treating cancers, they are often limited by serious adverse events and reduced potency. Many of these challenges are influenced by the binding affinity of the targeting antibody domain. For instance, a 15-fold change in affinity has been shown to sufficiently regulate CAR T-cell activity and minimize side effects. To tackle this issue from a fresh perspective, we developed a universal allosteric affinity switch module by incorporating engineered variants of human calmodulin (CaM) as scFv antibody linker. This enables affinity modulation upon binding a small switch ligand. Our method has been successfully applied to different antibodies, achieving both affinity increases and decreases within the same scFv fragment, indicating that it is a universal strategy applicable to any scFv and eliminating the need for individualized paratope engineering. Importantly, the switch ligands are compatible with both in vitro and in vivo applications, operating under physiological conditions, offering a powerful tool to remotely control immunotherapies. It holds particular promise as a safety regulator for CAR T-cell and T-cell engager therapies, enhancing their therapeutic potential.
Created by
Terrapinn is proud to be a member of isla.
Working together to build sustainable events