Recorded December 3, 2015
Sponsored by
Symposium Course Description:
This course will provide an overview of the specificity of protein-binding reagents in general, and more in-depth information regarding SOMAmer® (Slow Off-rate Modified Aptamers) Reagents. Course attendees will develop an appreciation of approaching
hypothesis-free biomarker discovery with SOMAmers, as well as the use of SELEX in identifying reagents that are highly specific for closely related proteins.
Learning Objectives:
- Development of SOMAmer reagents as protein-binding tools
- Examples of SOMAmer specificity – GDF-8 and -11; Single nucleotide polymorphisms; ALP and ALPPL2
- Applications for SOMAmer reagents
- Key differences between conventional aptamers, antibodies and SOMAmers, primarily in multiplexing
- SOMAmer reagent specificity in the SOMAscan assay
Speaker
Nebojsa Janjic, PhD
Chief Scientific Officer
SomaLogic
Nebojsa Janjic has been the chief science officer at SomaLogic, Inc. since January 2009. Prior to joining SomaLogic, Nebojsa was the CSO at Replidyne, Inc., a biotechnology company focusing on the development of new small-molecule antibacterial agents.
Prior to Replidyne, he was senior director of drug discovery at NeXstar Pharmaceuticals. At NeXstar, he was responsible for creating a pipeline of aptamer-based drug candidates for pre-clinical and clinical development. His contributions included
the discovery and early development of Macugen, the first-in-class FDA-approved treatment for macular degeneration and Innovative Pharmaceutical Product of the Year in 2005. Nebojsa is also an inventor of Fovista™, an aptamer-based antagonist
of PDGF-B currently in late-stage clinical trials for use in combination with VEGF inhibitors in macular degeneration. Nebojsa received his bachelor's degree in molecular biology and Ph.D. in physical organic chemistry from the University of Washington
in Seattle and completed his postdoctoral training at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla as a Cancer Research Institute Fellow