Sigrid Ruuls

Novel human antibody therapeutics: The age of the Umabs

Monoclonal antibodies represent a major and increasingly important category of biotechnology products for the treatment of human diseases. The state‐of‐the‐art of antibody technology has evolved to the point where therapeutic monoclonal antibodies, that are practically indistinguishable from antibodies induced in humans, are routinely generated. We depict how our science‐based approach can be used to further improve the efficacy of antibody therapeutics, illustrated by the development of three monoclonal antibodies for various cancer indications: zanolimumab (directed against CD4), ofatumumab (directed against CD20) and zalutumumab (directed against epidermal growth factor receptor).

Complement in therapy and disease: Regulating the complement system with antibody-based therapeutics.

Complement is recognized as a key player in a wide range of normal as well as disease-related immune, developmental and homeostatic processes. Knowledge of complement components, structures, interactions, and cross-talk with other biological systems continues to grow and this leads to novel treatments for cancer, infectious, autoimmune- or age-related diseases as well as for preventing transplantation rejection. Antibodies are superbly suited to be developed into therapeutics with appropriate complement stimulatory or inhibitory activity. Here we review the design, development and future of antibody-based drugs that enhance or dampen the complement system.

Opening the door to innovation

Open innovation is the new buzz, with initiatives popping up left and right. Here, we give a personal perspective on a very successful, knowledge-driven innovation initiated in an academia- industry alliance, which culminated in technology platforms that enable the generation of therapeutic antibodies with novel properties. To start, we provide a general background on open innovation in the drug development field.

Complement activation impacts B-cell depletion by both type I and type II CD20 monoclonal antibodies

To the editor: With great interest, we have read the article by Beers et al[1][1] documenting a potent B-cell depleting ability for type II (or tositumumab-like) CD20 antibodies. The authors conclude that complement-dependent cytotoxicity (CDC) is of little importance for B-cell depletion induced