10:30 – 10:45

Arrival and Coffee

10:45 – 11:00

Welcome Introduction by Moderator and Chair
Peter Coombs, Postdoctoral Fellow, MRC National Institute for Medical Research, UK

11:00 – 11:30

Implementation of the Octet for Rapid High Throughput Antibody Quantitation
Kalpana Nayyar, Scientist I, Development, MedImmune

Abstract not available

11:30 – 12:00

Development and Kinetic Characterization of CaptureSelect Affinity Ligands Using Bio-Layer Interferometry
Pim Hermans, Director of Ligand Discovery, BAC BV, The Netherlands

Since more and more antibody based therapeutics are lacking a regular protein A binding site it becomes a challenge to find a protein A equivalent for primary capture of antibody formats. For this reason BAC has developed a range of CaptureSelect affinity ligands directed against a unique panel of antibody sub-domains (e.g. present on Fab) to facilitate affinity purification and detection of virtually any antibody based format. Within the ligand development department of BAC BV, FortéBio's Octet platform has become an important and valuable tool for ligand candidate screening and lead selection by enabling verification of most optimal kinetic parameters. Examples of ligand screening processes will be presented in addition to antibody characterization assays that can be set-up in Octet by introducing CaptureSelect affinity ligands.

12:00 – 1:00

Networking and Lunch

1:00 – 2:00

Kinetics Analysis — What lies beneath the curves?
Philip Buckle, Ph.D., Applications Scientist, ForteBio Inc.

In this presentation, we will discuss many aspects of kinetics analysis. It will be aimed at answering fundamental questions such as: What do the rate constants actually mean? What processes apply to each part of the curves? How do rate constants affect the shapes of curves? We will also introduce the theory of Basic Kinetics, and how the different fitting model options can be used to optimize kinetics assays. This presentation will give valuable background information for those Octet Users who are running kinetics assays now, or in the future.

2:00 – 2:30

Targeting Epigenetic Readers and Mapping of Bromodomains
Oleg Fedorov, Ph.D., Structural Genomics Consortium, University of Oxford

Reversible histone modifications that regulate transcription and epigenetics constitute a very attractive area for the developing of new targeted therapies. Translation of the pattern of histone modifications into transcriptionally active or repressed chromatin states occur through the action of proteins called “readers of histone code”. The reader of lysine acetylation is a bromodomain — ubiquitous domain present in many protein families. Here I will present the application of Bio-layer Interferometry for mapping of bromodomains –histone interactions and development of small molecular weight chemical probes or tool compounds to study the biological function of the target proteins.

2:30 – 3:00

Probing peptide and protein interactions in real-time for the Discovery and Development of Novel Diagnostic Tests
Dr. James. A. Schouten, Principal Chemist, Mologic

A key feature of developing innovative, low cost, rapid diagnostic tests is a sound understanding of the molecular interactions that drive them. The Octet Red platform allows us to probe these interactions in real-time and with high-throughput, and has become an essential part of our in house toolkit. Here we share some of our experiences with the platform and how it contributes to discovery and innovation at Mologic. Applications include the probing of specific interactions for the detection of diagnostic markers, ranking of a panel of recombinant antibodies against a cell-surface antigen and determination of the affinity of novel di-peptide inhibitors of a bacterial enzyme.

3:00 – 3:15

Q&A