Antibody drug conjugates (ADCs) offer patients safer and more effective cancer chemotherapies by combining the specificity of an antibody with the potency of a small molecule drug. The antibody acts like a guide by targeting antigens overexpressed on the surface of cancer cells. Upon internalization into the cancer cell, linker cleavage releases the drug to perform its cell killing mechanism.
The potential of ADCs is evidenced by the recent FDA approval of 7 ADCs for the treatment of cancer, however, there is still a gap of technology when comparing the linker and bioconjugation strategies employed with the diversity of antibody targets and cytotoxins of commercial ADCs.
In an effort to amend this gap and expand the toolbox for the development of safer and more effective ADCs treatments, my thesis has made the first steps towards the development of a site-selective antibody bioconjugation strategy, as well as the development of novel linkers for the incorporation into ADCs. With more tunable technologies in hand next generation antibody drug conjugates may help alleviate the growing need for cancer chemotherapies.
