Dr. Adinarayana Kunamneni, PhD

Associate Professor of Medicine at Mayo Clinic

Speaker

I am an innovative scientist with over 20 years of experience having extensive hands-on skills in ribosome display, antibody discovery & engineering, molecular neuroscience and chronic pain therapeutics. I am interested in the molecular mechanisms of how proteins work and function in biological pathways and have enjoyed contributing in the early stages of developing the Antibody Ribosome display libraries and tools for antibody discovery, exploratory PK, immunogenicity, and in vivo efficacy evaluation and enhancements aiming to treat diseases with unmet medical needs. My current focus is developing tools and technology for antibody engineering with the ultimate goal of generating antibody diagnostics and therapeutics with desired properties. I have contributed to the development of an advanced ribosomal display method to generate repertoires of small molecule single-chain antibodies (scFvs) to target P2X4 receptor for chronic neuropathic pain. Single dose of small molecule antibody returns pain-, anxiety-, and depression-like behaviors to baseline. The antibody also reduces the excitability of human sensory neurons, which demonstrates translational relevance to patients with chronic pain. The antibody has been fully humanized & validated and is ready for IND status-Phase 1 clinical trials toward near future clinical therapies with our clinical and industry collaborators. My ultimate goal is to stop pain, through pursuit of pain relief mechanisms and development of therapies for testing in chronic neuropathic pain models.