Methods for improving the properties of antibody-drug conjugates

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Antibody drug conjugates (ADCs), a rapidly growing class of targeted therapeutics, represent a promising new approach toward improving both the selectivity and the cytotoxic activity of cancer drugs. Although several ADCs have demonstrated recent clinical success, the utility of most ADCs currently in development is limited by cumbersome synthetic processes, insufficient anti-tumor activity, and unpredictable toxicity. We believe that these drawbacks can be addressed byimprovements in both linker technology and the cytotoxic drugs used to construct the ADCs. Our broad long-term goal is to develop novel ADCs with improved potency, homogeneity and stability over existing targeted therapeutics. Igenica has developed two proprietary technology platforms that provide a complementary function-oriented screening strategy to systematically identify novel tumor associated antigen targets and antigen-specific monoclonal antibodies for constructing ADCs with improved pharmacolo