WEHI Special Seminar hosted by Dr Anne-Laure Puaux and 66ten

Dr James Rush

Spica Therapeutics BV

Balancing the Immune Scale: Developing Immunomodulatory Drugs in Autoimmunity and Cancer

Davis Auditorium

Join via SLIDO enter code #WEHIseminar

Including Q&A session

Please note this presentation will not be recorded

As our understanding of immune regulation deepens, the lines between treating chronic autoimmunity and harnessing immune function to combat cancer become increasingly nuanced. This talk will provide examples of approaches used for the development of immunomodulatory drug development in autoimmunity and fibrosis, as well as immuno-oncology. These examples include an overview of the development of the blocking anti-CD40 antibody Iscalimab as well as the development of monoclonal antibodies designed to selectively deplete pro-inflammatory macrophage subsets implicated in fibroinflammatory diseases and immune evasion in tumors.

Dr James Rush is an expert immunologist and drug development scientist with extensive experience leading successful preclinical and clinical research and development for novel therapeutics in autoimmune disease, transplantation and immune-oncology in both Pharma and Biotech. James completed a PhD in B cell immunology with Philip Hodgkin at the Centenary Institute at Sydney University before joining the labs of David Schatz and Charlie Janeway at Yale University as a HHMI postdoctoral fellow.  Afterwards, he joined the Genomics Institute of the Novartis Research Foundation in San Diego where his group focused on the identification of novel targets in autoimmune disease, as well as developing small molecule agonists and antagonists of innate immune receptors. He then moved to the Autoimmunity, Transplantation, and Inflammation disease area at Novartis to lead a project team developing a novel immunomodulatory antibody blocking CD40-CD154 interactions that achieved positive clinical results in multiple indications. During this time, he also led a translational immunology research group focused on the multi-omics profiling and analyses of human disease samples. In his last two years at Novartis he was a New Products Director, developing commercial strategy for early-stage drug development programs in rheumatology and gastroenterology. He then moved back into Biotech as CSO of Kling Biotherapeutics, developing biologics in immuno-oncology. Subsequently, he worked as a consultant CXO for various Venture Capital firms and Biotech companies. More recently, he has been the CEO of Spica Therapeutics, a Biotech focused on the targeting of human macrophage subsets in oncology and fibrosis. 

All welcome!