To register for your free place at this talk please email Katie Weeks (k.weeks@imperial.ac.uk)
In recent years there has been a revolution in the pharmaceutical industry with therapeutic antibodies displacing small molecule drugs as blockbuster pharmaceuticals. One of the pioneers of the techniques responsible for this change, Sir Gregory Winter, explains how this revolution started and where it is going.
Our immune system produces a wide variety of antibodies for fighting infections, but it wasn’t until the 1970s that researchers were able to manufacture specific antibodies themselves.
It then took another decade for this knowledge to reach its full potential as a drug treatment, when Winter developed a technique to ensure that the manufactured antibodies were not themselves deactivated by the body’s immune response.
The Kohn Award lecture is followed by a drinks reception as part of the Imperial Fringe, which includes opportunities to meet some of Imperial’s synthetic biologists and find out more about their research.
Biography
Sir Gregory Winter is a genetic engineer and best known for his research and inventions relating to therapeutic antibodies, as used in Herceptin (a treatment for breast cancer), Avastin (for treating colorectal cancer) and Humira (for rheumatoid arthritis).
He has won numerous scientific awards and founded three biotech companies: Cambridge Antibody Technology in 1989 (bought by AstraZeneca), Domantis in 2000 (bought by GSK) and Bicycle Therapeutics in 2009. His research career was based at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, and he is now Master of Trinity College, Cambridge.
About the Kohn Award lecture
The Kohn Lecture is presented annually by a distinguished speaker from an area of science for which Nobel and other international prizes are awarded.
Speakers are selected by the Kohn Lecture Advisory Board, which comprises:
- Sir Keith O’Nions FRS, President & Rector, Imperial College London (Chairman)
- Sir Ralph Kohn FRS, The Kohn Foundation
- Sir Aaron Klug OM FRS, University of Cambridge
- The Lord Krebs FRS, Principal, Jesus College, Oxford
- Sir Paul Nurse PRS, Director, The Francis Crick Institute
The lecture series is generously sponsored by the Kohn Foundation, which was established in 1991 by Sir Ralph Kohn as a registered charity providing financial support for scientific and medical research, educational purposes, musical and other artistic activities, as well as humanitarian aid.