Creating the next generation of antibodies for I–O

Antibodies such as PD-1/PDL-1 checkpoint inhibitors represented a huge breakthrough for cancer immunotherapy – but what’s next for antibody-mediated immune therapies in cancer, and which approaches hold the potential to move the needle towards improved safety and efficacy in the clinic? Roisin McGuigan, Editor, Immuno–Oncology Insights, speaks to Rony Dahan, Principal Investigator at the Weizmann Institute of Science, about his lab’s work on the next generation of engineered antibodies, and his predictions for the future of the space.

Dr Rony Dahan is an assistant professor at the Department of Systems Immunology, the Weizmann Institute of science. He completed his BA in Molecular Biology at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology in 2004. Dr Dahan completed his PhD in Molecular Immunology at the Technion in 2010. He served as a Cancer Research Institute Irvington Postdoctoral fellow in Cancer Immunology at the Laboratory of Prof Jeffrey Ravetch at Rockefeller University in New York from 2013 until joining the faculty of the Weizmann Institute of Science in August 2017. Dr Dahan has been awarded several U.S. patents for antibody-based immunotherapies. His translational work in the immunotherapy field includes licensing of technologies from his lab to pharmaceutical companies, collaborations and consulting positions in pharma and biotech companies. His prizes include the Technion’s Presidential Excellency Award (2004), the Pollack Prize for Academic Excellence (2007), the Fulbright Foundation Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship, the Sanford Kaplan Prize for Creative Management in 21st Century High Technology (2011), the Immune Therapies Training Award of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (2011), the Hershel Rich Technion Innovation Award (2011), the Israel Cancer Research Fund (ICRF) Career Development Award (2018), the Harry J Lloyd Charitable Trust (HJLCT) Career Development Award (2019), and the Melanoma Research Alliance (MRA) Young Investigator Award (2019). Dr Dahan is the incumbent of the Rina Gudinski Career Development Chair.

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