Understanding Antibody-Conjugated Therapies Through NMR: Assessing the Structural Impact of Conjugation
Antibodies and antibody-conjugated therapies represent an important, rapidly growing area for the pharmaceutical and biotech industries. As these fields develop, there is an increasing need for analytical tools that provide detailed information about how these molecules behave in solution. Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectroscopy has a long and successful history in the pharmaceutical industry as a research tool, facilitating structural and dynamical studies of small molecules, peptides, oligonucleotides, and more. Over the past decade, NMR has been used to characterize the solution behavior and higher-order structural features of antibodies. Applying these techniques to antibody-conjugated therapies, many of which have challenging solution properties that diverge from those of their parent antibodies, has the potential to provide unique insight into structural and dynamic properties of these molecules.
Webinar Overview
In this webinar, we will describe novel applications of solution Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectroscopy to antibody-conjugated therapies to understand how conjugation impacts the higher-order structural features of antibodies. For this case study, antibodies were conjugated to two distinct linker-payload systems to probe the impact of specific payload classes on solution behavior. The drug-antibody ratio (DAR) was varied to further broaden the understanding of how conjugation influences the solution behavior of antibodies. Using NMR techniques that have previously been used to study antibodies, we generated fingerprint spectra of these antibody-drug conjugates, allowing direct visualization of structural changes as a function of payload, DAR, and time. These techniques have direct application as an analytical tool in the study of antibody higher-order structure and have the potential to allow for the development of novel therapies with improved solution properties.
Tuesday, October 6, 2026
8 AM PDT, 11 AM EDT, 5 PM CEST
What to Expect
Discover new applications of NMR spectroscopy in the field of antibody-conjugated therapies. Understand how payload properties and drug-antibody ratio influence the solution behavior of antibodies. Learn about the unique insights NMR spectroscopy provides in combination with traditional analytical characterization tools.
Key Learnings Points
- NMR spectroscopy provides unique insight into the higher-order structural features of antibodies and antibody-conjugated therapies.
- Application of NMR techniques to novel therapies provides an opportunity to develop a deeper understanding of these systems that is inaccessible by many other analytical methods.
Who Should Attend
- Analytical researchers interested in novel methods for characterizing challenging targets in solution.
- R&D scientists investigating antibody-conjugated therapies.
- Scientific leaders interested in expanding their analytical capabilities and understanding in an increasingly competitive field.
Speakers
Emily M. Grasso
Scientist, BioNMR/Protein Bioengineering at NJ Bio, Inc.
Emily Grasso obtained her Ph.D. in Molecular Biophysics at Johns Hopkins University, studying structure and disorder in proteins using NMR spectroscopy. She studied membrane-association and disorder-to-order transitions using solution biophysics techniques as a post-doctoral researcher before joining NJ Bio in late 2023, where she uses NMR to characterize a variety of therapeutic systems and support diverse research goals.
David Fry
Senior Distinguished Research Leader at NJ Bio, Inc.
David Fry joined NJ Bio in early 2019. He has 27 years of drug discovery experience as Head of Structural Chemistry at Hoffmann-La Roche, and after that was Vice-President of Protein Chemistry at The Chemistry Research Solution LLC. He is a globally recognized expert in the use of NMR in drug discovery and has co-authored over 60 publications.