Analytical Characterization to Guide Biotherapeutic Development

Research activities within the Discovery organization of AbbVie rely on strong collaborations amongst scientist across many fields and areas of expertise. Within the Biologics Pharmacy and Analytics group, we work closely with protein engineering and expression groups to evaluate quality attributes of recombinant antigens and novel biotherapeutics. This characterization ensures production of high-quality reagents, enabling various discovery initiatives and project advancement. These same characterization techniques are also applied to guide biotherapeutic development, addressing project-specific questions and challenges across AbbVie's Therapeutic Areas. An area of focus is the profiling of post translational modifications (PTMs), which can significantly alter protein function and disposition and, therefore, necessitate detailed analytical characterization of protein therapeutics as well as the targeted proteins. Here, we present multiple characterization approaches, including detailed analytical (mass spectrometry) and biophysical analyses, to guide early development and provide increased understanding of novel biotherapeutics and their protein targets.

Biography: Nathan Brown received his Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from Northwestern University, under Professor Annelise Barron, for his work on structure-activity relationships of synthetic analogues of surfactant protein C. Following his graduate work, Nathan joined the AbbVie Bioresearch Center in Worcester, MA as a senior analytical scientist originally in Operations and now within the Discovery organization. In his current role, he leads the Biologics Pharmacy and Analytics group within the Global Protein Sciences, where his group is responsible for analytical and biophysical method development and characterization in support of early and late discovery initiatives across AbbVie's therapeutic areas. His main area of support is Neuroscience, developing therapeutic approaches for neurodegenerative diseases. Areas of interest include in-depth biophysical characterization, protein post translational modification profiling and characterization by mass spectrometry as well as glycoproteomics.