Seminar
Paul van Bergen en Henegouwen, University of Utrecht, the Netherlands
Dr. A. Cambi, Department of Tumor Immunology, NCMLS, Nijmegen
Overexpression and or mutations of the members of
the ErbB family of growth factor receptor are strongly involved in
the development of different cancers. This family consists of the
members EGFR, Her2/neu,Her3 and Her4. Small molecule inhibitors and
therapeutic antibodies have been developed against the different
members but there is still a clear need for further optimization of
current therapies. In addition, early diagnosis is essential for
the treatment success of cancer. In this presentation I will show
our recent results on the development of proteins that can be used
both for diagnosis and therapy, a research field indicated as
Theranostics. Essential for this approach are nanobodies, which are
antibody fragments obtained from antibodies that are present
incamelidae.Besides conventional antibodies, these animals also
express a class of antibodies that lack the light chain. The
variable region, indicated as VHH or nanobodies, have all binding
properties of these antibodies. Application of the nanobodies will
be shown in our research on the signaling process of the EGFR, the
development of novel tracers for optical and PET/SPECT imaging of
tumors and the development of novel therapeutic molecules that are
directly targeted to the tumor using the nanobodies.
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