Main Conference Day 2Tuesday, 15 December 2026 - PT (Pacific Time, GMT-08:00)

Transmembrane proteins are difficult targets for antibody generation due to the challenge of making a soluble protein with native conformation. I will present an LNP-mRNA-based immunization strategy that resulted in the identification of antibodies that bind to extracellular epitopes of challenging transmembrane proteins. This strategy incorporates LNP-mRNA-based antigens together with boosting, sorting, and screening strategies to yield antibodies against proteins that have limited epitopes, are difficult to express, or are highly conserved.

Many high-value membrane protein targets, including GPCRs and ion channels, remain difficult to drug due to technical barriers such as sequence conservation and structural complexity. We will discuss how advanced immunization strategies and parallel antibody engineering to optimize affinity, specificity, and developability are reshaping what is considered druggable, and provide insights from campaigns against more than 100 untapped targets.

AbTherx will discuss the Atlas™ Mice platform, a differentiated suite of transgenic mouse technologies for human antibody discovery. The team will share performance data and the utility of using these models to address discovery of standard mAb therapeutics, bi- and multi-specifics, and generation of antibodies against difficult or intractable targets

H3N2 influenza A viruses drive the majority of seasonal influenza surges, accounting for the highest burden of infections, hospitalizations, and deaths over the past decade. Dr. Wilson will present his laboratory's recent work utilizing novel technologies to isolate human B cells reactive to the H3N2 hemagglutinin glycoprotein, identifying unique mechanisms of viral neutralization. This presentation will detail several novel mechanisms of antibody-mediated control of H3N2 influenza virus.

HCAb Harbour Mice® is the world’s first fully human heavy-chain-only immunoglobulin transgenic mouse platform. This presentation will highlight integrated antibody discovery and screening capabilities, including high-throughput and AI-powered screening approaches, enabling the efficient identification and optimization of next-generation therapeutic antibodies against complex and challenging targets.