Career Profile

I am a PhD Scientist with over 10 years of experience in oncology, immunology, radiopharmaceuticals, antibody development, preclinical drug discovery and translational medicine. I have filed 11 patents (including 1 licensed for clinical development), written multiple manuscripts and contributed to 3 successful IND applications. Subject matter focuses have included: Protein engineering, T-cell immunotherapy, radionuclide therapy and general immunology.

Currently, I lead a team of scientists as the Vice President of Research at Y-mAbs Therapeutics Inc., leading non-clincal strategy, target identification, discovery, drug development and clinical translation. I routinely interface and communicate with multiple departments including CMC manufacturing, clinical operations, business development and commercial to help streamline the transition of early drug candidates to clinical trials, and help facilitate their (potential) market approval.

My postdoctoral work focused on the engineering, characterization and proof-of-concept in vivo data of a novel theranostic radiopharmaceutical platform, (SADA), which is now in clinical development at Y-mAbs Therapeutics Inc. (Santich et al. 2021). My postdoctoral work culminated in 2 manuscripts and the filing of 7 patents.

I received my PhD from the Louis V. Gerstner Jr. Sloan Kettering Graduate School of Biomedical Science at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center under the co-mentorship of Dr. Nai-Kong Cheung and Dr. Morgan Huse, with my thesis uncovering the importance of T-cell bispecific antibody format design (Santich et al. 2020), through engineering, characterization and in vivo proof-of-concept for multiple T-cell bispecific antibody designs. I also studied CAR-T therapy and checkpoint blockade cancer immunotherapies. My graduate work culminated in 2 manuscripts, multiple conference presentations and the filing of 4 patents.

Prior to this, I spent two years working as an IRTA Fellow at the National Institutes of Health (NIAID) under the mentorship of Dr. Susan Moir.

Work Experience

Vice President, Research

2025 - Present
Y-mAbs Therapeutics Inc.

Lead non-clinical research activities and operations at Y-mAbs Therapeutics. Oversee target identification, validation, drug discovery and preclinical drug development. Manage 6 scientists (4 direct reports) and collaborate cross-functionally with all other teams.

Skill sets include:

  • antibody discovery, engineering and analytics
  • assay and process development
  • in vivo pharmacology in multiple animal models
  • target analysis and clinical strategy
  • scientific communication
  • personnel management

Senior Director, Research

2023 - 2024
Y-mAbs Therapeutics Inc.

Oversaw drug discovery, lead selection, assay development and non-clinical pharmacology studies Directed all research activities and operations of the Y-mAbs R&D US Laboratory, including management of a team of 6 scientists. Collaborated as scientific lead in cross-functional projects with clinical operations, medical, business development, commercial and manufacturing. Managed portfolio of scientific studies performed by external CROs, including serving as the primary contact, negotiating agreements, and ensuring quality and adherence to project timelines. Led strategy and execution of the non-clinical development package for 2 successful IND filings.

Scientific Director

2022 - 2023
Y-mAbs Therapeutics Inc.

Director of Pretargeted Radioimmunotherapy Research

2020-2021
Y-mAbs Therapeutics Inc.

Postdoctoral Fellow

2019 - 2020
Louis V. Gerstner Jr. Sloan Kettering Graduate School

Developed novel multi-step radioimmunotherapy program to treat cancer. Work was published in Clinical Cancer Research, presented at multiple conferences and ultimately out-licensed for clinical development. Designed protein therapeutics, optimized expression (293/CHO), performed in vitro characterization (SPR, FACS, cell based assays, ELISA), and evaluated PK/PD profiles in animal models.

Guest Editor

2019 - 2020
Frontiers in Immunology and Oncology

Guest editor for Research Topic (Bispecific Antibodies for T-Cell Based Immunotherapy) for Frontiers in Oncology and Frontiers in Immunology.

Graduate Student Fellow

2013 - 2019
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

Studied T-cell bispecific antibody format and design. Work was published in Science Translational Medicine. Designed, expressed, purified and assayed multiple bispecific and multispecific antibody formats across numerous tumor cell targets. In vitro assays included SPR, ELISA, Flow cytometry, cytotoxicity. In vivo studies included pharmacokinetic assessments, efficacy, imaging and pathology.

IRTA NIH Fellow

2011 - 2013
National Institutes of Health, NIAID

Studied B-cells from patients with chronic granulomatous disease or chronic HIV infection. Assays included flow cytometry assessments of cell antigens and cytokine release assays.

Recent Publications and patents

Below is a list of recent first author publications and patents. For a list of all my publications visit my Pubmed bibliography: Full Publications List

  • Anti-cd3 antibodies and uses thereof
  • Santich BH, et al. US Patent No 17/920,539
  • Modular self assembly disassembly (sada) technologies
  • Santich BH, et al. US Patent No 16/609,401