Biomolecular Engineering & Biophysical Processes

Six different topics are being presented throughout six sessions.

New Technologies in Biomolecule Design & Engineering

Sunday, August 13 from 8 am – 12 pm PST in Foothill G1

As biomolecular engineering and protein engineering strategies become more widely adopted to develop biomolecules with improved properties, new technologies are needed to increase the speed and efficiency with which biomolecules are engineered to enable new discoveries and applications. This session will focus on advances in biomolecule engineering and protein engineering technologies that are currently being developed in academia and industry. Relevant topics include, but are not limited to, new platforms for accelerating protein engineering, new technologies in DNA/RNA engineering, innovations in library generation, new screening approaches, high throughput technologies, and advances in computational strategies (including machine learning and artificial intelligence) to protein or biomolecule design and engineering. Abstracts that discuss new tools for introducing non-standard nucleotides, amino acids, or post-translational modifications to biomolecules, or new approaches for engineering biomolecule stability, functionality, and manufacturability are also encouraged.

Biomolecule Structure and Function

Sunday, August 13 from 2 – 6 pm PST in Foothill G1

Elucidating sequence-structure-function relationships in proteins is crucial to understand protein interactions with other biomolecules and their molecular mechanism within biological systems. Recent advances in biomolecular engineering including protein engineering and design also provide insight into their structure and function. A foundational understanding of structure and function is the main driver behind the expansive biotechnological applications of proteins and other biomolecules, including the development of new biotechnologies and safe and efficacious biologics. This session seeks presentations focused on scientific approaches (wet lab and computational) to understand and decipher the fundamental principles connecting the primary and higher-order structures of biomolecules and proteins and their post-translational modifications to their function and behavior in vitro and in vivo.

Protein Engineering for Therapeutic, Diagnostic, and Sensor Applications

Monday, August 14 from 2 – 6 pm PST in Foothill G1

Methods to modify—and, indeed, design—the biochemical properties of proteins have accelerated the development of new therapeutic agents, sensitive diagnostics, and versatile biosensors with wide-ranging applications. This session focuses on these myriad projects. Work on protein therapeutics may include both computational and experimental methods to design, evolve, or test therapeutic antibodies, enzymes, and other protein-based agents. Methods for improving antibody targeting and immunomodulation, protein stability, or stimuli-responsive systems are particularly encouraged. Sensors and diagnostics may include genetically-encoded fluorescent and bioluminescent sensors, split and activatable proteins, small molecule and light-responsive transcription factors, two-hybrid systems, metabolite sensors, engineered CRISPR-Cas proteins for improved molecular targeting in diagnostic applications, or methods for integrating and using these systems alongside one another.

Enzyme Engineering to Biocatalysis

Tuesday, August 15 from 8 am – 12 pm PST in Foothill G1

Enzymes enable the synthesis of structurally complex molecules under ambient—or otherwise mild—conditions; they offer a sustainable means of building a striking variety of chemicals. Recent years have witnessed the expansion of biocatalytic processes across the pharmaceutical industry and fine chemical sectors. Advances in enzyme engineering have enabled the assembly of sophisticated biocatalytic cascades and accelerated the design and optimization of enzymes with novel functions and stabilities (e.g., activity at high temperatures or in mixed solvents). This session invites abstracts focused on enzyme engineering, broadly defined. Topics include advances in process development; the design, discovery, and evolution of enzymes and biocatalytic systems; and high throughput screens, structure-function analyses, modeling, and applications of machine learning (ML)/artificial intelligence (AI) techniques. Papers relevant to biocatalytic cascades, green chemistry, environmental and waste management, biocatalysis under non-natural conditions (e.g., organic solvents), or that highlight applications in the pharmaceutical, biofuel, food, textile, detergent, and paper industries are particularly encouraged. Unlisted topics relevant to enzyme engineering and biocatalysis are also welcome.

Biotherapeutic Developability and Stability

Tuesday, August 15 from 2 – 6 pm PST in Foothill G2

The need for efficacious biotherapeutics under rapidly accelerated timelines has never been more clearly evident. Confident, rapid selection of candidates to progress into development is vital to increasing our speed to the lab, clinic, and industrial processing. This session will focus on recent advances across academia and industry in computational and experimental approaches for 1) predicting and assessing the developability of a variety of therapeutics and novel modalities not limited to proteins and 2) studying mechanisms of physical and chemical degradation, colloidal stability, and non-specific interactions.

Emerging Characterization Methods for Protein Therapeutics

Wednesday, August 16 from 2 – 6 pm PST in Foothill G1

Biologics are a rapidly expanding class of therapeutics in the modern pharmaceutical market. Protein drugs (e.g. mAbs) exhibit inherent structural complexity, and emerging modalities (gene therapy, mRNA vaccines, AAVs, etc.) consist of manifold combinations of various biomolecules. A critical task of biological drug development is to characterize the structural stability and integrity, including myriad post-translational modifications, of the drug substance(s), from upstream production through downstream purification, manufacture, and product lifecycle and to assess the potential of these characteristics as critical quality attributes (CQAs). In-depth characterization of structural behaviors of biologics is therefore critical in all stages of drug development and manufacturing. Innovative measurements must evolve to allow comprehensive product quality assessment and continually improve product stability amenable to global distribution. This session includes emerging, state-of-the-art high-resolution biophysical and analytical methods to characterize biopharmaceuticals including peptides, proteins, oligonucleotides, monoclonal and multispecific antibodies, viral and non-viral gene and cell therapies, and vaccines.