Icosagen

🔬 This month, our scientists are on two continents, taking part in important scientific events. 🏈 In Houston, USA, Paule Hermet was at the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC), meeting with experts in immuno-oncology to discuss recent progress and new directions. She presented a poster at the conference on “Discovery of specific antibodies against ADORA2A to enhance anti-tumour immunity”. “There were lots of insightful presentations, and overall it was a very nice event,” commented Paule. 🎻 Across the Atlantic in Graz, Austria, our CTO Andres Männik had attended discussions at the European Summit of Industrial Biotechnology (#esib2024, by acib GmbH). He gave a talk on “Advancing Recombinant Secretory IgA Production in CHO Cells“ during the Bioprocess Development for New Modalities session. “It was a very interesting conference. A lot of attention was paid to the use of machine learning and statistical models, which can be used to optimize and develop processes faster and more efficiently,” said Andres. Our scientists like to be up to date by taking up opportunities to expand their knowledge and to share it with others. 👏 Good job you two!

👍 PEGS 2024: Coffee: 10/10. Booth delivery: 3/10. Success: 10/10. Despite heavy rain in Barcelona delaying 75% of our booth, the missing bags finally arrived — only an hour late. But who needs a booth anyway, right? Between packed sessions, not-so-quick-chats, and maybe a little too much coffee, our team walked away with valuable feedback. Interest in our technology was high, from early R&D to GMP manufacturing, with companies looking for efficient, reliable solutions — from antibody development to scalable protein production. And we’re ready to meet that demand. 💪 Special shout-out to Eveliis Koppel, who wrapped up the conference on her birthday. Happy belated cake day, Eveliis! 🎂 Thanks to everyone who connected with us last week. Now, we’re left with one final question: Did Lauri Peil ever get to eat the baguettes he bought for himself?

😎✨ Check out our new booth at #MEDICA2024! Slide on over at Halle 3 / E71. From stable cell pools to an analytical toolbox that validates every batch, we tailor everything to your needs – no one-size-fits-all here. Let’s talk about how we can give your diagnostic projects the boost they deserve.

😤 Mediocre diagnostic antibodies simply aren’t an option for us. At MEDICA - Leading International Trade Fair, visit us at Halle 3 / E71 to learn how our platforms deliver antibodies with unmatched consistency, sensitivity, and reliability— all essential qualities in diagnostics. 🧵 We have worked hard to keep our antibody discovery strategies sharp, and tailor the workflow to each project. Not to mention our approach to producing antibodies with stable cell pools reaching titers up to 10 g/L. With our comprehensive analytical toolbox, which includes CLIA, BLI and SPR measurements, thermostability testing, mass spectrometry and analytical SEC etc., each batch can be validated for numerous sets of characteristics. Stop by #MEDICA to meet Eveliis Koppel, Nele Kuusma, Stella-Lotta Aria, and Karl Mumm, and discover how we can help enhance the quality and regulatory compliance of your diagnostic project.

🎀 Time to wrap up BIO Europe Stockholm! A huge, heartfelt thank you to everyone who took the time to connect with us and showed such strong interest in Icosagen's CRDMO capabilities. We had a full schedule of very interesting meetings over the days about our mAb discovery technologies, our IcoCell cell line development platform and our GMP manufacturing capabilities. We’re happy about the opportunities ahead and the potential to collaborate on your different recombinant protein projects. 🤗 See you next time! And thank you again to everyone, including the great #EBD organization, who made this conference a success! We're here for a few more hours, so don't be shy – come and say hello!

🎉 Huge congratulations to Tõnis Timmusk, who was honoured with the Lifetime Achievement Award from Estonian Society of Human Genetics! With more than 100 research papers and 16,000 citations, he's one of Estonia's top scientists. Tõnis has made a significant contribution to neurotrophic factors, especially in understanding the role of BDNF in nervous system development and function in neurodegenerative diseases. His research into neuronal gene regulation has helped uncover how genes in the brain adapt in response to stimuli, which is vital for understanding both normal development and neurological diseases. Tõnis was also an old colleague of our CEO Mart Ustav’s - a direct line to get the antibody needed for his research. 🧠 In addition to personal contacts, he's been connected to Icosagen through anti-BDNF antibodies. Tõnis joked that he should be considered part of Icosagen's business development team after connecting us with the professor of Neurobiology at Cardiff University Yves-Alain Barde - contributing significantly to making the BDNF antibody the leading antibody for BDNF western blot analysis! Some members of our large team took the stage at the Human Genetics Conference too. Tanel Mahlakõiv, Ph.D., our Translational Research Director, presented on “Development and Application of CAR T Cell Therapy in Estonia as a Direct Outcome of Personalized Medicine.” 🙏 The presentation highlighted how CAR T therapy would be harnessed within Estonia to push for personalized treatments for complex diseases, offering new hope to patients with previously limited options. Our CTO, Andres Männik moderated a session with topics ranging from pioneer transcription factors to tissue regeneration and extracellular matrix. Thank you EstSHG for a great conference!

Looking to advance your therapeutic antibody pipeline? Meet our team of specialized experts face-to-face at PEGS Europe 2024, Barcelona at booth #1319 and… …from early mAb discovery and protein production to CMC solutions ➡️ find out how our capabilities can bring your CRO (and CDMO) antibody project(s) to life. Get to know Lauri Peil, Stella-Lotta Aria, Eveliis Koppel, Nele Kuusma or some of our best project managers and researchers, including our Head of Protein Analytics Sebastian Zoll. SAVE THE DATES: 🗓️ Tuesday, November 5th, 10:00 am Swing by to catch Lauri Peil’s talk on “Improved Antibody Discovery using High-Density Antigen Display with Engineered Virus-Like Particles.” (Heads up, it promises to provide practical insights on how to effectively utilize VLPs for antibody discovery, screening, and engineering!) 🗓️ Tuesday, November 5th, Poster Session A A058: Development of Therapeutic Antibodies Targeting the GLUT1 Transporter to Restrict Cancer Cell Growth, presented by Lauri Peil. 🗓️ Wednesday, November 6th, Poster Session B B052: Development of a High-Titer Bi-Paratopic Tetravalent Diabody-Fc-Fab: Using the IcoCell® Line, Design for Manufacturability and Modern DoE, presented by Lauri Peil. 🫡 We’re here to connect on your biologics needs and explore potential collaborations!

🤔 Guess who’s attending Bio-Europe Stockholm? That’s right, us! Don´t miss a meeting with us to discuss all the different aspects of your mAb discovery, pre-clincal and clinical development needs from stable cell line development till GMP manufacturing, all combined under one roof! We’re hitting Bio-Europe from November 4th to 6th with Ulrike Scheffler, Mart Ustav Jr., Tõnis Eerme, and Oliver Schub. They represent all parts of our CRDMO pipeline as experts, ready to discuss your specific pre- and clinical development needs. ☕Find us in the partnering system and schedule meetings, coffee line chats or spontaneous hallway convos. We look forward to seeing you in Stockholm! 📅 PS. November’s just around the corner, don’t forget to prebook!

How many of you have met Ulrike Scheffler? Ulrike recently joined Icosagen. From Berlin, Germany, she brings a wealth of commercial and scientific experience to the role of Senior Director of Business Development. And she fits into the team so well. 👀 Here are some quick words of wisdom from her: “I’m happy to have received such a warm welcome in the amazing University City of Tartu. Icosagen’s science based CRDMO platform technologies make it an ideal place for me to contribute my skills and experience. I am excited to be working with this bright team and look very much forward to the future. I can’t recommend highly enough to visit the brand new facility in Tartu and enjoy the beautiful nature there!” 😊 If you’re at Festival of Biologics, make sure you get the full CRDMO experience by visiting our cozy booth (#620) to understand how we can turn your therapeutic biologic ideas into a clinical candidate: For your R&D needs: From early mAb discovery (Phage Display, HybriFree B-cell cloning technology, our innovative VLP mAb discovery technology, transient protein productions For your CMC needs: From stable cell line development to GMP manufacturing of your drug substance. We'll be sure to talk about science and our technologies in a very cheerful way and you will have lots of fun at our booth! Before that, here’s some information about Ulrike to start off the conversation: 🍜 She enjoys cooking Asian dishes 🍜 Ulrike has worked in Icosagen for just 2 weeks, but she and Oliver Schub have been co-workers for 5 years. 🍜 Her, Eveliis Koppel and Nele Kuusma used to have an “oyster tour” whenever they were at the same conference 🍜 She likes exchanging travel stores from across the world 🍜 What’s your favourite story with her?

Don't miss out on Mart Ustav Jr. 's talk today at 5:30pm at Theatre 1! And don't forget to be at the poster zone tomorrow at 6:10pm, posters 121 and 122, to see more of how we can convert our R&D and GMP capabilities into success for you.