About us
Professor Sally Ward, an antibody engineer, and Professor Raimund Ober, a bioengineer, oversee the group. We use a combination of protein engineering, advanced microscopy methods and in vivo models to inform the design of antibody-based therapeutics.
Research outcomes
During the 1990s, we identified the Fc receptor, FcRn, as a global regulator of antibody (IgG) levels in the body. This knowledge has been used over the past several decades to generate engineered antibodies or antibody fragments that have longer in vivo persistence and lower the levels of (pathogenic) antibodies in the body. The underlying technology for these approaches has been licenced to biopharma and used to generate therapeutics that are now approved for use in the clinic.
Examples of such therapeutics are:
- the half-life extended antibody, nirsevimab, that recognises respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and is used for the prophylaxis of RSV infection.
- Efgartigimod, or Vyvgart, was developed by argenx and is approved to treat antibody-mediated autoimmune diseases such as myasthenia gravis and chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy.
In the area of fluorescence microscopy, we developed a microscopy approach called multifocal plane microscopy that allows protein molecules to be tracked within live cells at unprecedented spatiotemporal resolution. In parallel with the generation of novel microscopy set ups, we have also developed algorithms to more accurately localise fluorescently labelled single protein molecules within cells.
New approaches
Recent developments in our research group include:
- engineering of antibodies with improved drug delivery properties for use as antibody-drug conjugates.
- the generation of an approach (Seldegs) to selectively degrade pathogenic antibodies in the body.