Predictive biomarkers for development of antibody-drug conjugates

3^rd International Conference on Biomarkers & Clinical Research

July 2-4, 2012 Embassy Suites Las Vegas, USA

Omar Kabbarah

Scientific Tracks Abstracts: J Mol Biomark Diagn

Abstract :

Antibody-drug conjugates hold tremendous promise in Oncology. Through selectively targeting tumor cells with lethal payloads while largely sparing normal cells from unwanted toxicities, this class of "smart drug" could offer meaningful clinical relief to patients suffering from cancer. For the therapeutic potential of ADCs to be fully realized, however, it is vital that the development of these compounds be coupled with a diagnostic can be used to identify patients who are likely to experience clinical benefit, as well as those who are not likely to respond to the ADC and would be better served to pursue other treatment options. Diagnostic approaches from Genentech's ADC pipeline will be presented.

Biography :

Dr. Omar Kabbarah has an educational background that encompasses a variety of areas, including CNS development for an MS degree at the NIH, establishment and characterization of mouse models of cancer as part of a PhD from Washington University School of Medicine, and melanoma genomics and disease biomarker discovery as a post-doc at the Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Institute, where he discovered the first-in-class Golgi oncoprotein GOLPH3. Currently, Dr. Kabbarah is working in Genentech as a Biomarker Team Lead on three clinical-stage Oncology programs, including two Antibody-Drug Conjugates (ADCs), and a Biomarker Disease Strategy focused on CRC and Gastric Cancer. Prior to Genentech, he was a Principal Scientist at AstraZeneca Boston, where he established and led an Oncology Target Discovery group, and also actively contributed to a Breast Cancer Strategy as a member of a global disease area team. Dr. Kabbarah also led an Oncology target identification and validation group at AVEO Pharmaceuticals, with special emphasis on the FGFR pathways.