Seminar Talk by Felix Schumacher on November 25 at 11:30 am

Felix Schumacher, Ph.D.
Program Leader Targeted Therapeutic, Roche Pharma Research and Early Development (pRED)

Brain drug delivery - a landscape and Roche's approach to engineer antibody-antisense oligonucleotide conjugates

Drug delivery to the brain is a major challenge of modern pharmaceutical development due to the blood-brain barrier's (BBB) ability to tightly regulate entry of any molecules into this organ. Various approaches have been established but are usually very invasive, which puts a significant burden on patients and health care systems. Numerous novel technologies are under development, which include particles, carrier systems and temporal BBB opening approaches. A landscape of these systems will be presented in the first half of this seminar followed by a deep-dive into the Brainshuttle-based brain delivery system for antisense oligonucleotides (ASOs), which is currently under development at Roche. A special emphasis will be put on the design challenges associated with such complex molecules and how to (or not to) navigate such a cross-functional scientific challenge.