DISCOVER bispecific antibodies: generation, biophysical characterization and functional validation

In this episode of the Bruker Biosensors DISCOVER MOLECULAR INTERACTIONS webinar series Prof. Kolmar from the university of Darmstadt is sharing his work on bispecific antibodies and how to biophysically characterize their cooperativity and binding to cell targets.

This webinar is part of the webinar series DISCOVER MOLECULAR INTERACTIONS by Bruker Biosensors. In this episode, Prof. Harald Kolmar from University of Darmstadt will talk about new advances in the field of antibody engineering, specifically the design and affinity maturation of bispecific antibodies.

The affinity of therapeutic antibodies is a critical parameter in drug discovery, as optimizing it can improve their efficacy and thus limit adverse effects and costs of the treatment. Prof. Kolmar introduces Two-in-One antibodies utilizing common light chains to facilitate correct chain pairing.

A bispecific antibody targeting EGFR and PD-L1 is investigated to test, whether the affinity for EGFR can be optimized without negatively affecting PD-L1 binding. The binding kinetics to both target proteins were characterized using dual-color biosensor experiments, enabling conclusions on the avidity effect caused by bivalent binding. Additionally, the tumor cell binding capacity of the affinity-matured antibody was investigated using single-cell Interaction Cytometry.