World ADC San Diego 2024, the premier event for the antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) community, was held at the beginning of November. This global conference brought together leading researchers, biopharma companies, and service providers to discuss the latest breakthroughs, strategies, and innovations in ADC development.
The conference brings together over 1,500 experts in cancer biology, medicinal chemistry, and drug manufacturing to share recent findings and collaborate on the next generation of ADCs. Our team was thrilled to attend this year’s event, engaging with the scientific community to accelerate the most promising technology for cancer treatment to date.
Moments of Note: Genentech’s Presentation, TME-Targeting and New Conjugation Techniques
This year featured over 100 posters and presentations on topics ranging from early discovery through manufacturing, including novel ADCs designed to target cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs), site-specific bioconjugation methods and overcoming challenges in manufacturing. The conference also included a rare session in which Genentech shared insights from the development and ultimate termination of an ADC targeting HER-2 positive breast cancer, DHES0815A.
Much of the early-stage research focused on identifying new target antigens which are specific to the cancer cells. Additionally, there was major interest in how the attributes of the tumor micro-environment could be targeted to increase the efficacy of ADCs, for instance, targeting CAFs or critical tumor vasculature utilizing VEGF-A.
Various site-specific conjugation technologies were also on display at the conference, each with its own strengths and weaknesses. One of the major themes for these technologies was creating a more homogenous drug-to-antibody ratio (DAR), while maximizing binding efficiency and specificity. Seeing the rapidly growing list of conjugation techniques, there are many options for ADC developers to consider and we expect to continue to see major advancements in this area over the next few years.
With an explosion of new antibodies and indications, researchers were eager to find models that were specific to their testing needs. The team from Crown Bioscience was excited to share our latest models and services, as well as gain further understanding of the latest needs of ADC researchers.
With Crown Bioscience committed to advancing the ADC field, we presented our latest data and capabilities, which are designed to help researchers and developers optimize their ADC programs. This data was summarized in two posters, which are available for download here:
Download posters presented at World ADC 2024
ADC Screening in a Large Organoid Panel Reveals the Importance of Functional Assays for Predicting Tumor Response
The first scientific poster highlights the role of organoid panels for screening ADCs. Organoids excel as a tool for understanding ADC mechanisms of action and resistance. With multiple components to optimize in developing an ADC, researchers at the conference were enthusiastic about integrating these powerful in vitro models into their development process.
In the poster presented, multiple FDA-approved ADCs were screened using 50 cancer organoid models. Multimodal data sets were generated using combinations of NGS, CellTiter-Glo (CTG), high-content imaging (HCI), and immunofluorescence (IF).
The study provided valuable insights like a partial lack of correlation between target expression and drug efficacy, which resonated with findings of others at the conference, and highlighted the benefits of these organoid panels for ADC development.
Discovery to Translational Solutions Leveraging Patient-Derived Models for ADC Therapeutic Evaluation & Resistance Profiling
The second poster gives an overview of the fully integrated services Crown Bioscience offers for ADC development. While the first focuses on the strengths of organoids for ADC development, the second covers a much larger range of patient-derived models, and how a combination of patient-derived xenografts (PDX) and organoids can be leveraged for ADC target validation, therapeutic screening, identifying resistances, and ultimately guiding patient stratification.
Blog
To learn more about the concepts and challenges with ADCs, read our previously published blog post here.
