Career Profile
I am a PhD Scientist with over 10 years of experience in oncology, immunology, radiopharmaceuticals, protein engineering, preclinical drug development (in vitro analytics, in vivo pharmacology, assay development). 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: Antibody engineering, T-cell immunotherapy, targeted radioligand therapy and general immunology.
Currently, I lead a team of scientists as the Senior Director of Research at Y-mAbs Therapeutics Inc., focusing on early research, development and characterization of novel cancer therapeutics. I routinely interface and communicate with multiple departments including CMC manufacturing, medical, business development and commercial to help streamline the transition of early drug candidates to clinical trials, and help strategize 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 in the laboratory of Dr. Anthony Fauci.
Work Experience
Oversee drug discovery, lead selection, assay development and non-clinical pharmacology studies Direct all research activities and operations of the Y-mAbs R&D Laboratory, managing a team of 6 scientists. Collaborate as scientific lead in cross-functional projects with clinical operations, medical, business development, commercial and manufacturing. Manage 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.
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
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 therapuetics, optimized expression (293/CHO), performed in vitro characterization (SPR, FACS, cell based assays, ELISA), and evaluated PK/PD profiles in animal models.
Guest editor for Research Topic (Bispecific Antibodies for T-Cell Based Immunotherapy) for Frontiers in Oncology and Frontiers in Immunology.
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.
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