Sarah Louise Mattern
PhD Student Merck KGaA
Sarah Mattern has a background in biotechnology and has discovered her interest for antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) during her Master thesis at Fraunhofer ITMP. This ultimately led her to Merck Healthcare KGaA, where she is currently pursuing her PhD in the ADC Technologies-department. Right now, she is exploring PROTACs as ADC payloads in the PROxAb Shuttle team, focusing on the optimization of complex stability for lower affinity PROTACs through smart PROTAC design and screening for new antibody-PROTAC combinations. Thus, the need for novel payloads plays a critical role in her work.
Seminars
As the ADC landscape becomes crowded around Topo1 and MMAE payloads, the need for differentiated mechanisms is vital to ensure future conjugates can overcome anticipated resistance and deliver patient benefit
Join this workshop session to navigate the different avenues of novel payload development, assessing the emerging performance of cytotoxic, non-cytotoxic and dual payload approaches to discuss and debate the next payload wave to replace topoisomerase inhibitors
Workshop highlights include:
- Discussing the crucial need for novel ADC payloads in the face of crowded clinical landscapes and future patient resistance mechanisms
- Weighing up risk level against novelty of mechanism when approaching novel payload development: What linker payloads are showing the most promise so far?
- Evaluating the opportunity for dual payload ADCs and combination therapies to combat patient resistance
