Animal-Free Series for Early-Career Researchers Workshop No. 2 - Antibodies and Beyond: The Power of Animal-Free, Recombinant Antibodies
Wednesday, April 09, 2025, 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM EST
Category: Partner Webinar
Wednesday, April 9, 2025 10:00 am ET / 14:00 UTC
Join the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, Johns Hopkins Center for Alternatives to Animal Testing, and the Animal Protection Commissioner of Berlin’s second session in their Animal-Free Workshop Series for Early-Career Researchers. In Workshop No. 2, Antibodies and Beyond: The Power of Animal-Free, Recombinant Antibodies, Esther Wenzel, PhD, Co-Founder and COO of the biotech company Abcalis Gmbh, will provide an introduction to antibodies and discuss the development, advantages, and disadvantages of animal-free antibodies.
Workshop Summary One of the most underestimated aspects of the 3R principles is the use of common laboratory reagents, such as antibodies, which cause the death of 1 million animals in the EU every year. Today's life sciences would be unrecognizable without the millions of available research antibody products. There are > 3.5 million antibody-based products on the market, > 99% of which are animal-derived (polyclonal, monoclonal, recombinant), while < 1% are animal-free antibodies. However, methods of development and production vary widely in their impact on animal welfare. This workshop gives an introduction to antibodies and explains the most common terms used in relation to antibodies. What does mono- or polyclonal mean? How are these antibodies developed and how do animals play a role? How can animal-free antibodies be developed and what are their advantages and disadvantages? Here, the phage display method is explained as one of the main methods used to develop animal-free antibodies. Application examples show the versatility of animal-free antibodies in their applicability. In addition, a small sensitization of which products and reagents in the daily laboratory routine may contain materials of animal origin will be presented. About the Speaker Dr. Esther Wenzel is an expert in animal-free technologies. She is Co-Founder and COO of the biotech company Abcalis GmbH that specializes in animal free antibody discovery and production and offers consulting to find solutions for animal-origin free work in laboratories. She gained extensive experience with diagnostic tests, cell culture and animal-free techniques of 3D cell cultures and spheroids to replace animal tissue since the early 2000s. In 2016, she developed animal-free antibodies against diphtheria toxin by phage display that can replace the current therapeutic, equine serum. These defined polyclonal human antibodies are currently under FDA review. Esther perfected high-throughput methods for the functional testing of antibodies and coinvented Multiclonal Antibodies, an animal-free replacement for polyclonal antibodies. To bring this new product to the market, she founded Abcalis GmbH with colleagues in 2019. Her work was acknowledged by national and international awards, including the 1st ECEAE prize for Animal-free Antibodies, the Lower Saxony Innovation Award, and the start-up award of the city of Braunschweig.
Learn more about opportunities for Early-Career Researchers at https://www.pcrm.org/ERA21.
Contact: [email protected]
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