Sophia Karagiannis | Professor of Translational Cancer Immunology and Immunotherapy
King's College London

Translational B cell and cancer immunologist with academic and biotechnology experience in the UK and USA. She heads a cancer antibody discovery team focusing on dissecting the crosstalk between human immunity and solid tumours and understanding the impact of antibody isotype on therapeutic efficacy. The Karagiannis group evaluate cancer patient-derived B cells and their expressed antibodies, antibody-engaging immune effector cells such as monocytes/macrophages and basophils, and engineering of antibodies of different isotypes, Fc-optimised antibodies and antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs). Sophia is founding member and elected Chair of the AllergoOncology Working Group in the European Academy of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, focused on the interface between Th2 immunity, allergy, IgE and cancer. Her group is the first to design and translate IgE class antibodies from concept to clinical testing and commercialisation. She is author of several patents on antibody technologies and founder of Epsilogen Ltd, the first immuno-oncology company dedicated to developing IgE-based cancer immunotherapies.