: How has research in cancer immunotherapy changed in the past decade and how have the technological developments contributed to this evolution?
DE: Our understanding of the immune system continues to advance swiftly, improving our ability to intercede and modulate immune cells to combat cancer and other diseases. The development of useful antibodies has been at the forefront in this cancer fight. Valuable tools have been provided for both researchers and biologic antibody treatments for patients. Technologies including next-gen sequencing, phage and yeast display, and direct cloning of immunoglobulin genes from individual B cells all have contributed greatly to our understanding of immunology. All this and more has enabled researchers to reinforce our immune front line of defense in the surveillance and destruction of cancer cells.
: What are some of the biggest hurdles/challenges facing researchers in this field and do you think they are being adequately addressed?
DE: There are an abundant number of antibodies currently on the market. Many of which have not been thoroughly tested for specificity, affinity, and the ability to work effectively within various unique applications, for example Western or IHC. The scientific community as well as ProSci are addressing these issues with more rigorous specificity testing. ProSci now offers risk-free antibodies, tested for specificity, as well as provides a guarantee that they work within specific applications.
: Are there technological solutions that are currently being developed that you are excited about?
DE: Synthetic antibody libraries and in vivo generated antibody libraries are very exciting technologies in the development of useful antibodies for researchers and biologics. Providing large, highly diverse libraries for researchers to screen and pull out unique highly specific, high-affinity antibodies needed for discovery, diagnostics, and therapeutics. ProSci also develops llama single domain antibody (sdAb) phagemid libraries. These llama sdAb have very exciting characteristics including, a small size of only 15 kd that allows for binding to internal unique epitopes that are often functional. In addition, the sdAb have extreme stability, lending themselves to use for point of care diagnostics without the need for refrigeration.
: What are some of the new trends that you are seeing in this field? Will existing technology keep up with those trends?
DE: The development and use of recombinant antibodies continues to trend. Having the DNA of your antibody of interest has great advantages over that of older standard hybridoma technologies, including not ever having to worry about losing a clone that is no longer expressing well or to contamination. Recombinant antibodies also have the ease of production and are readily available to perform affinity maturation or other manipulations like developing bispecifics. In addition, the ability to introduce the DNA from the antibodies into other cells types can be helpful for example in making unique chimeric antigen receptor T cells.
: Are there gaps in current technology offerings for cancer immunotherapy? How do they relate to lack of instrumentation, technical know-how, data deluge, translational issues?
DE: Chimeric antigen receptor T cells or (CAR) T cells provide the ability to manipulate what T cells can recognize and modulate. These modified CAR T cells can be extremely powerful weapons in the fight on cancer. Yet, with all of our current knowledge regarding the T cells mechanisms of action we still have not been able to safely and effectively harness their power.
Researchers are now diligently working to develop an on/off switch for CAR T cells. If successful this could be a game changer in our ability to regulate CAR T cells and shut them off or down if the immune response turns against self or creates a cytokine storm.
: As a technology/service provider how are you impacting the progress in this field? What can you do more/better and what will help to make this happen?
DE: ProSci has been making antibodies for over 20 years and is a premier provider of both catalog antibodies and antibodies services. We recently released our risk-free antibodies collection: thoroughly specificity tested antibodies guaranteed to work within the desired application. Providing researchers with the best reagents available for their research needs. ProSci continues our own R&D and continues to develop new technologies and expand our portfolio of antibodies. Our custom antibody service now includes both recombinant rabbit monoclonal antibody development, using direct cloning from a single sorted plasma cells and recombinant llama single domain antibody development using phage display. We strive to continually improve our core competency of providing the highest quality antibodies and tools for research, diagnostics, and therapeutic development.
: If you could change one thing to drive progress in this field what would that be?
DE: Expand the access to immunotherapy trial databases in order to provide these data, including failures so that the same missteps are not repeated. These barriers continue to impede the progress of science. This, of course, is a very complex issue with concerns over privacy and competition. Yet with lives on the line it seems so important that reaching an understanding of sharing of the data in a timely manner is of the utmost importance.