Francisco Castillo | Senior Scientist Screening and Target Validation
Fundacion MEDINA
Francisco Castillo is a Senior Scientist at Fundación MEDINA, where he leads cell-free therapeutic discovery and automated high-throughput screening (HTS) platform development for drug discovery, diagnostics, and pandemic preparedness. He holds a PhD in Biophysics of Biomolecular Interactions and specializes in functional biochemistry, biophysical characterization, and translational assay development. He has authored 24 D1-Q1 peer-reviewed publications, delivered more than 30 presentations at international conferences, and serves as an expert panelist for the European structural biology infrastructure INSTRUCT. At Fundación MEDINA, he coordinates activities within the European pandemic preparedness network ISIDORe-Resp4Priopath and develops automated platforms for rapid biomolecular interaction screening. His industrial experience includes leading CMC and preclinical assay development at Peptomyc and automated assay development at Vircell SLU. He has also collaborated with global biotechnology companies to validate emerging technologies, co-develop commercial assays, and accelerate technology transfer.
Appearances:
Festival of Biologics Day 3 @ 12:00
A High-Throughput, Free-Solution Screening Platform for Ternary Complex Assembly: From One Health Diagnostics to Next-Generation Therapeutics
Conventional solid-phase ELISA workflows for antibody characterization and pair selection are often costly, reagent-intensive, and time-consuming. To address these limitations, we introduce Spectral Shift Technology (SST), a sensitive fluorescence-based platform that quantifies biomolecular interactions through sub-nanometer emission wavelength shifts under native, free-solution conditions. SST enables rapid assessment of affinity and binding compatibility, facilitating identification of productive ternary complexes in a miniaturized, automated high-throughput screening (HTS) format. As a proof of concept, SST was used to rapidly select anti-FeLV p27 monoclonal antibody pairs recognizing distinct epitopes. The platform identified compatible antibody combinations capable of simultaneous target engagement, forming stable ternary complexes for downstream assay development. Compared with conventional workflows, SST achieved up to a >100-fold reduction in sample consumption and reduced characterization time from overnight protocols to less than one hour. Selected antibody pairs outperformed commercially available benchmark anti-FeLV p27 antibodies and were successfully translated into a highly sensitive prototype lateral flow immunoassay (LFIA). These findings establish SST as a rapid, reagent-efficient platform for high-throughput biomolecular interaction screening and functional ternary complex discovery. Beyond antibody pair selection, SST offers a scalable framework for accelerating One Health diagnostic development and supporting next-generation biologics, with potential applications in quality control across research, manufacturing, and clinical development.
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