Antibody drugs have become increasingly popular in recent years, growing to a trillion dollar industry. Compared with conventional chemical medicines, antibody drugs have distinct advantages, including higher target specificity and a prolonged lifespan in the body. Multiple antibody drug discovery strategies complement one another, greatly increasing the possibility of acquiring a suitable lead from a large pool of clones. In vitro functional screening and characterization of antibody drug candidates is a critical step during antibody drug early discovery, which determines the fate of antibody leads. MoA-specific and efficient in vitro functional assays not only facilitate the hunt for the ideal drug candidate, reducing the risk of the project's failure the in the long run, but also provide a suitable batch-release bioassay method for antibody drug CMC stage.

The purpose of this webinar is to share insights on bioassay design strategy (cell line engineering included) and some technical tips for in vitro functional bioassay development with the antibody drug discovery community. We will focus on bioassays for tumor-specific targets, immune checkpoint targets, cytokine targets, as well as a touch on the coronavirus (COVID-19) target.