Fadil Bidmos | MRC Senior (Non-Clinical) Fellow
Imperial College London

After studying the potential effect of phase variation on long-term asymptomatic colonization of the human nasopharynx by the meningococcus, Dr. Fadil Bidmos obtained a PhD in meningococcal genetics and immunology, with a specific focus on the vaccine candidacy of the phase-variable iron-acquisition proteins, HpuAB and HmbR. This was followed by a five-year postdoctoral fellowship in the Langford Lab at Imperial College London, where he utilized the Reverse Vaccinology 2.0 (RV 2.0) strategy to identify novel meningococcal and pneumococcal vaccine antigens.
Dr. Bidmos’s research has been supported by funding from the UK Medical Research Council, including a Career Development Award (2019–2024) and a Senior Non-Clinical Fellowship (2024–2029). This funding enables work on bacterial and synthetic cell glycoengineering to enhance vaccine precision and effectiveness. Additionally, his emerging lab has received support for projects applying RV 2.0 to gonococcal vaccine antigen discovery and alternative post-infection therapeutics (NIHR Imperial BRC), as well as for the development of a meningococcal panproteome array in collaboration with Antigen Discovery Inc., USA (NIH SBIR Phase I).

Appearances:

Pre-Congress Workshops - 21st April @ 10:00

Optimizing mAbs for Infectious Diseases

OPTIMIZING mAbs FOR INFECTIOUS DISEASES [W3] – 10am – 5pm

Room 202B

10am Workshop leader’s opening remarks: Dr Michel De Wilde, Former Senior Vice President R&D at Sanofi Pasteur & Owner, MDW Consultant LLC

Presentations: Developing improved mAbs for Infectious Diseases:

Global Health:

10.10 -10.30 Strategies to optimize mAbs for malaria

Dr Neville Kisalu, Senior Scientist, Cellular Immunology Section, Vaccine Research Center, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health

10.30 – 10.50 Development of mAbs for unmet needs in global health * Title TBC

Dr Chia Wei Tsai, Vice President, Mapp Biopharma

10.50 – 11:10 mAbs to prevent vertical transmission of HIV: a pathway to impact

Shelly Malhorta, IAVI

Respiratory diseases:

11:10 – 11:30 Expanding the reach of immune therapies: nucleic acid delivery of antibodies

Antonio DiGiandomenico, Senior Director, Bacterial Antibodies, AstraZeneca

11:30 – 11:50 Developing mAb therapies that keep pace with rapidly evolving viral threats (COVID)

Dr Robert Allen, CSO, Invivyd

11:50 – 12:10 A New Frontier in mAb Therapeutics: DNA-Encoded Monoclonal Antibodies (DMAb™)

Dr Dave Liebowitz, Senior Vice President, Early-Stage Clinical Development, Inovio

12.10 – 12.30 Vaccination with Next-Generation Influenza Vaccines May Preferentially Recall Influenza Hemagglutinin-Directed Antibodies Endowed with Broadly Neutralizing Activity

Dr Giuseppe Sautto, Assistant Professor, Cleveland Clinic

12.30 – 12.50pm Computationally optimizing antibodies for infectious disease

Dr Daniel Faissol, Principal Investigator, Center for Bioengineering, Executive Director, Predictive Design of Biologics, LLNL

1pm Break

2pm Beyond mAbs: The Next Generation of Antibody Therapeutics for Treating Infectious Diseases

Sheila Keating, VP Immunology, Grifols

2.30pm Commercialization challenges for mAb products – understanding pathways to recommendation

Richard Hughes, Partner, Epstein Becker & Green, Professor of Law, The George Washington University Law School

3.00pm Panel: NextGen AI / computational technologies for improved vaccines and therapeutics

Introductory Presentation: Jonathan Heeney, CSO, DIOSynVax

Discussion:

Approaches to antibody-antigen interaction prediction / antigen payload synthesis

What are the challenges of computational approaches, how can we ensure more accurate/higher prediction rates

What are the implications of these new technologies for antibody and vaccine development?

What are the challenges of moving from traditional approaches to computational approaches – is it hard to keep up with technology?

Moderator: Jonathan Heeney, CSO, DIOSynVax

Dr Giuseppe Sautto, Assistant Professor, Cleveland Clinic

Dr Fadil Bidmos, UK MRC Senior (Non-Clinical) Fellow, Imperial College London

Dr Daniel Faissol, Principal Investigator, Center for Bioengineering, Executive Director, Predictive Design of Biologics, LLNL

4.15pm End of workshop