Avacta is pleased to announce that its Chief Scientific Officer, Dr Amrik Basran, will be presenting at the Protein Engineering Society of Europe meeting, which is taking place in Lisbon on 14 November 2018. Dr Basran will be presenting recent data relating to the pre-clinical development of the Group’s lead therapeutic programme, a PD-L1/LAG-3 single molecule bispecific.
Dr Basran will focus particularly on the development of novel Affimer® bispecific formats that inhibit two immune checkpoints simultaneously. PD-L1 plays a key role in suppressing the immune system, and by blocking this checkpoint protein on tumour cells, it assists the immune system’s attack on the cancer. The blocking of LAG-3 on T-cells helps to maintain the immune system attack and reduce T-cell exhaustion.
The Group is developing this single molecule bispecific therapy with a view to entering phase I clinical development in 2020, which will yield first-in-man clinical data for the Affimer® platform. Avacta is also building a pipeline of novel immuno-oncology Affimer® assets for clinical development and licensing.