Science Pool

Interesed in Evotec's Translational Molecular Patient Database? 

In this presentation, first presented at our luncheon during German Biotechnology Days, focuses on:

• The database's over 200,000 samples and data from over 15,000 patients
• Data-driven approaches for better diagnoses
• Categorization by disease mechanisms

View the presentation to learn more!

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Date: 11 - 13 May 2022

Location: Coex, Soul and Virtual 

Attendees: Tim Potter (In Person) and Nicholas Johnson (Virtually)

Read more about 2022 Bio Korea

Learn more about our activities for Deep Proteomics at Scale to Drive Biomarker Discovery.

To further boost Evotec’s high-throughput proteomics platform we have implemented the Proteograph™ platform from Seer, which enables automated and unbiased nanoparticle based protein enrichment for maximal proteomic insights.

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Monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) have been a huge success story in the biopharmaceutical industry. They have changed the landscape of biologicals and offered therapies for previously untreatable diseases. Although mAbs have been on the market since the mid 1980s, they have become increasingly sophisticated over the past decades. This also holds true for the technologies enabling the identification, design, preclinical and manufacturing processes of monoclonal antibodies.

While the traditional hybridoma technology is still broadly used for the creation of mAbs, novel technologies such as immune antibody libraries or fully humanoid antibody libraries have emerged in recent years. Moreover, researchers can today leverage a range of powerful approaches to optimize the mAb creation process, e.g., high-throughput screening, state-of-the-art sequencing, AI / machine learning or analytics. This, in turn, speeds up the development cycle, allows for precise selection of the desired mAb properties and ultimately reduces failures of monoclonal antibodies at advanced development stages.

But how to choose from the vast range of technologies for antibody development? This challenge was discussed at Evotec´s recent Innovation Week in a session titled "Translate your idea into a product: AI -driven antibody discovery at Evotec".

The session covered Evotec´s capabilities for supporting all activities across the R&D continuum, i.e.

• Discovery and optimization of novel antibodies for specific disease targets,
• Evaluation of lead antibodies for disease efficacy and safety and
• Process development and manufacturing.

"In many cases, it is not the question of using either one or another technology," says Barbara Bachler-Konetzki, Group Leader In Vitro Pharmacology at Evotec. "Depending on the desired properties of the monoclonal antibody, combining several technologies will do the trick. Therefore, it is important to have access to a comprehensive repertoire of leading-edge, synergistic technologies."

For state-of-the-art monoclonal antibody development, Evotec has established a unique one-stop-shop from target identification to IND. This includes a broad technology platform as well as unparalleled expertise in drug development and even manufacturing, including latest advances in artificial intelligence and machine learning such as generative adversarial networks (GAN) to create synthetic realistic outcomes by machine learning (J.HAL).

The resulting integrated biologics platform is called J.DESIGN and integrates molecular, process and manufacturing design.

The example of Evotec´s internal SARS-CoV-2 campaign shows how its proprietary J.HAL technology can be used to identify antibodies effectively blocking the SARS-CoV-2 infection pathway by binding to SARS spike protein, effectively neutralizing the infectivity across several SARS-CoV-2 strains. The subsequent in silico sequence analysis informs about mAb properties and engineering opportunities to reach the desired properties re immunogenicity, stability etc. Further steps, e.g., sequence and stability optimization, improve manufacturability and yields or pharmacokinetics (PK).

For mAb development, Evotec pursues a translational approach, i.e., leveraging its extensive expertise in various therapeutic areas to facilitate the setup of disease-relevant biological assays. Among others, this allows for PK/PD characterization of biologics early in the R&D process as well as the prediction of downstream in vivo efficacy and demonstration of target engagement. Moreover, Evotec’s pre-clinical department offers the full range of in vitro and in vivo GLP and non-GLP pre-clinical evaluation studies to assess the safety profile of the drug candidate. In addition, Evotec has established several sophisticated manufacturing facilities worldwide to reduce the risk of downstream attrition and delay.

This unparalleled infrastructure and translational expertise put Evotec in a unique position to conduct leading-edge, integrated monoclonal antibody development programs all the way from target identification to manufacturing.

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Evotec sample management team is responsible for the long-term storage and distribution of Evotec and partners compound collections.

In 2019, Evotec decided to invest in acoustic tubes technology in order to support future customer need and plan for potential transfer of our libraries into acoustic tubes. In parallel to this decision, Evotec sample management decided to initiate an internal project to evaluate the impact of acoustic tubes usage on compound integrity.

This poster highlights and describes the experiments performed, which substantiate and validate the use of acoustic tubes.

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•  Accelerating your drug discovery and research programs through interdisciplinary integration and expert coordination of all activities “under one roof”
• Industry-leading timelines, taking your program from the selection of an optimal clinical candidate to regulatory submission typically in less than 52 weeks
• Expert management by experienced, dedicated project managers and drug development professionals
• Seamless knowledge transfer across disciplines, maximizing the quality and efficiency of the overall development package
• Custom-designed, flexible development plans that allow for real-time adjustments and adaptability to unforeseeable scientific outcomes
• Excellence in project governance, performance review and issue escalation management

In this work, published in collaboration with Boston Children's Hospital, Evotec actively contributed to the identification of DW0254 and small molecule analogs capable of inhibiting RAC activation in acute lymphoblastic leukemia cell lines. Photoaffinity labelling mass spectrometry (PALMS) approach was successfully applied to identify PDE6D as the molecular target of DW0254. PALMS and biophysical methods were also used to identify the binding site of DW0254 in PDE6D. Our study provides evidence that PDE6D-dependent RAS trafficking with downstream activation of PI3K/AKT and RAC constitutes a novel potential therapeutic target in high risk leukemias.

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About this Webinar

In this short recording, Dr Pia Thommes, VP Anti-Infectives and Virology Therapeutic Leader discusses:

• Current challenges in Infectious Diseases drug discovery
• Human SARS-CoV-2 and other emerging viruses
• Industry relevant in vivo models
• The wider reaching consequences of the COVID pandemic

More about Dr Pia Thommes.

Pia gained her PhD in Molecular Genetics and followed this with a postdoctoral in biochemistry, focusing on DNA replication and cell cycle. She has 12 years experience in drug discovery of antivirals at GW/GSK, 4 years work in oncology on DNA Damage Response at KuDOS/ AZ. In 2012 Pia took on a role as Scientific Operations Director at Euprotec, a specialist CRO for infectious disease, this was incorporated into the Evotec family in 2014. Currently Pia is working as VP of Anti-infectives in Alderley Park and also Therapeutic Area Lead for Virology.

Hope you enjoy the webinar

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Download this fact sheet to learn more about cytochrome P450 (CYP) induction including:

• Background information
• Assay details and protocol summary
• Data generated in the CYP induction assay