Training Seminars by Cambridge Healthtech Institute

Cambridge Healthtech Institute Training Seminars offer real-life case studies, problems encountered, and solutions applied, along with extensive coverage of the academic theory and background. Each training seminar offers a mix of formal lecture and interactive discussions and activities to maximize the learning experience. These training seminars are led by experienced instructors who will focus on content applicable to your current research and provide important guidance for those new to their fields.

 

Training Seminars Will Be Offered In Person Only
To ensure a cohesive and focused learning environment, moving
between conference sessions and the training seminars is not allowed.





Training Seminars

Monday, 16 November 2026 08:30 – 17:00

TS1A: Introduction to Multispecific Antibodies: History, Engineering, and Applications

Introduction to Multispecific Antibodies is an informative and practical guide to getting up to speed on critical aspects of multispecific antibody therapeutics. Topics will include historical successes, failures, and lessons learned. Specific practical instruction will span mechanisms of action, engineering, developability, regulatory considerations, and translational guidelines. Perspectives on ideal implementation of multispecifics as targeted and immunomodulatory approaches will be discussed.
Introduction to Multispecific Antibodies
G. Jonah Rainey, PhD, Associate Vice President, Eli Lilly and Company

Topics to be covered:

  • A brief history of bispecific antibodies: 60 years of progress with critical advances and key pioneers
  • Bispecific applications and powerful mechanisms-of-action
  • Engineering bispecific antibodies: 100 formats and counting
  • Bispecific-specific considerations in preclinical development and regulatory landscape
  • Developability, manufacturing, and analytical considerations
  • Clinical experience, translation, and regulatory approval
  • Current trends and future opportunities in regulating immune checkpoints, cell-based therapies, and personalised approaches​​​​​

INSTRUCTOR BIOGRAPHY:

Photo of G. Jonah Rainey, PhD, Associate Vice President, Eli Lilly and Company
G. Jonah Rainey, PhD, Associate Vice President, Eli Lilly and Company
Jonah Rainey holds a PhD in Biochemistry from Tufts University and completed postdoctoral training at the University of Wisconsin and the Salk Institute. He has engaged in discovery, research, and development of bispecific antibodies for more than 15 years. He is an inventor on several patents describing novel bispecific platforms and current clinical candidates that exploit these platforms as well as an author on almost 30 publications. Jonah contributed to research and early development leading to multiple clinical candidates from Phase I and through approved products and led many advanced preclinical programs in oncology, infectious disease, autoimmunity, and other therapeutic areas. Previous industry experience includes MacroGenics, MedImmune/AZ, Oriole Biotech, Gritstone Oncology, and Alivamab Discovery Services. Currently, Jonah is a Senior Director in Protein Science at Eli Lilly & Co.

TS2A: Everything You Ever Wanted to Know about Immunogenicity

This 1-day training seminar provides a practical, comprehensive overview of immunogenicity—the causes, how to assess an immunogenicity risk, and what to do if you observe immunogenicity during preclinical, clinical, and post-market approval. The seminar begins by detailing the science behind immunogenicity and the latest international guidance, followed by assay and bioanalytical assessment strategies for traditional and emerging biologics. Other topics include non-clinical models, the role of AI/ML, and reporting immunogenicity.
Everything You Ever Wanted to Know about Immunogenicity
Chloé Ackaert, PhD, Senior Scientist, Immunogenicity, IQVIA Laboratories

This 1-day training seminar provides a practical, comprehensive overview of immunogenicity—the causes, how to assess an immunogenicity risk, and what to do if you observe immunogenicity during preclinical, clinical, and post-market approval. The seminar begins by detailing the science behind immunogenicity and the latest international guidance, followed by assay and bioanalytical assessment strategies for traditional and emerging biologics. Other topics include non-clinical models, the role of AI/ML, and reporting immunogenicity.

INSTRUCTOR BIOGRAPHIES:

Photo of Aurelie Mazy, Scientist, IQVIA Laboratories
Aurelie Mazy, Scientist, IQVIA Laboratories
Aurélie Mazy, MSc obtained her Master's degree in Biomedical Sciences with a focus on Immunopathology. She joined IQVIA Laboratories (formerly known as ImmunXperts) in 2019 as a Scientist in the Immunogenicity Department and has since built extensive expertise in immunogenicity testing and bioanalytical sciences. In 2024, she assumed leadership of the department, where she now manages scientific operations and supports a team dedicated to delivering high-quality immunogenicity assessments for biotherapeutic development.
Photo of Chloé Ackaert, PhD, Senior Scientist, Immunogenicity, IQVIA Laboratories
Chloé Ackaert, PhD, Senior Scientist, Immunogenicity, IQVIA Laboratories
Chloé Ackaert is a pharmacist by training (Catholic University of Leuven 2009) and obtained her PhD at the University of Salzburg (Austria) for the research on the impact of nitration on the immunogenicity of birch pollen allergens in 2013. She first joined ImmunXperts in the start-up phase and continued academic research at the Free University of Brussels (2015-2018) working on the immunogenicity of Nanobodies. Afterwards, she joined ImmunXperts again where she is a senior scientist in the immunogenicity team, collaborating both on the client-based projects as well as on the continuous basic research projects to elucidate immunogenicity-related questions.
Photo of Timothy Hickling, PhD, Consultant, Quasor Ltd; CSO, Open Immune
Timothy Hickling, PhD, Consultant, Quasor Ltd; CSO, Open Immune
Tim has 15 years’ experience contributing to immunogenicity risk and mitigation strategies for large molecules and advanced therapies at Roche and Pfizer, from early discovery projects to those in clinical development and post-marketing. During the last ten years he has contributed immunology expertise to the development of an in silico immunogenicity model, with the purpose of improving predictions of clinical immunogenicity for drug candidates. Tim previously worked on vaccine development and holds a PhD in Immunology from the University of Oxford.

TS3A: Introduction to Machine Learning for Biologics Design

This course offers an introduction to concepts, strategies, and machine learning methods used for biologics design. It includes presentations and demonstrations of the methods used in the field, covering techniques such as triaging sequences, modulating affinity, and designing antibody libraries, along with increasing manufacturability. The course is directed at scientists new to the field and protein engineers wanting an introduction to how machine learning can aid in guiding biologics design.
TS3A: Introduction to Machine Learning for Biologics Design
Christopher R. Corbeil, PhD, Research Officer, Human Health Therapeutics, National Research Council Canada
  • Basics of machine learning and where it fits into drug discovery
  • Modern homology modelling and structure prediction
  • Predicting antibody affinity and specificity modulation
  • Generative design in biologics: library design and language models
  • Machine learning applications of T cell and B cell immunogenicity
  • Methods and application of ML for chemical, folding, and solution stabilities​​

INSTRUCTOR BIOGRAPHY:

Photo of Christopher R. Corbeil, PhD, Research Officer, Human Health Therapeutics, National Research Council Canada
Christopher R. Corbeil, PhD, Research Officer, Human Health Therapeutics, National Research Council Canada
Dr. Christopher Corbeil is a research officer at the National Research Council Canada (NRC) who specializes in the development and application of computational tools for biotherapeutic design and optimization. He is also an associate member of the McGill Biochemistry Department and teaches classes in Structure-Based Drug Design at McGill University. After receiving his PhD from McGill University, he joined the NRC as a Research Associate investigating the basics of protein-binding affinity. Following his time at the NRC he joined Chemical Computing Group as a research scientist developing tools for protein design, structure prediction, and binding affinity prediction. He then decided to leave private industry and rejoin NRC with a focus on antibody engineering. Dr. Corbeil has authored over 30 scientific articles and is the main developer of multiple software programs.

TS4A: Protein Production 201: Applying End-to-End CEPA Workflow

Protein production is more complex than just the act of expressing the proteins. This training seminar will review the end-to-end protein production CEPA (Cloning, Expression, Purification, Analytics) workflow process and focus on how to increase its efficiency and productivity. The choice of a suitable host expression system depends mainly on the biological and biochemical properties of an individual protein. We will review the concepts and applications of the major host expression systems, then turn our focus to the optimization of the entire CEPA workflow, including an emphasis on upfront approaches to maximize the likelihood of success while minimizing costs, challenges in expression and purification, and how to establish high quality protein QC standards. This seminar will combine instruction and case studies in an interactive environment. It is recommended for scientists of all experience levels interested in addressing the demand for increasingly complex proteins within ever decreasing timelines.
Presentation to be Announced
Richard Altman, MS, Field Application Scientist, Thomson Instrument Company

Topics to be Covered:

Review of host expression systems and their application

  • Cell free, bacterial, yeast, plant, insect, and mammalian host systems
  • Which expression system should I use to express my protein?
  • Can we generate a host expression decision tree to address complex modalities?

Implementing and optimising the CEPA workflow

  • Aligning data and biology to optimise expression
  • Addressing bottlenecks in harvesting/purification
  • Analytical methodologies and their applications
  • Establishing/Setting QC standards

Case Studies

  • Difficult-to-express proteins
  • Structural biology support
  • Automation/Screening
  • Scale-down/Scale-up​
​
Agenda

8:30 Opening Remarks and Introduction

8:45 Review of Host Expression Systems and Their Applications
Richard Altman, MS, Field Application Scientist, Thomson Instrument Company

9:30 Implementing the CEPA Workflow: Cloning 
Dominic Esposito, PhD, Senior Director, Protein Sciences, Septerna

10:15 Morning Coffee Break

10:30 Implementing the CEPA Workflow: Expression
Richard Altman, MS, Field Application Scientist, Thomson Instrument Company

11:30 Implementing the CEPA Workflow: Purification
Christopher Cooper, DPhil, Senior Lecturer in Biotechnology, University of Surrey

12:30 Lunch Provided 

13:00 Implementing the CEPA Workflow: Increasing Throughput and Automation
Christopher Cooper, DPhil, Senior Lecturer in Biotechnology, University of Surrey

14:15 Implementing the CEPA Workflow: Analytics and QC
Dominic Esposito, PhD, Senior Director, Protein Sciences, Septerna

15:15 Afternoon Coffee Break

15:30 Case Studies

16:30 Looking into the Future of the CEPA Workflow: Roundtable Discussion
Richard Altman, MS, Field Application Scientist, Thomson Instrument Company
Christopher Cooper, DPhil, Senior Lecturer in Biotechnology, University of Surrey
Dominic Esposito, PhD, Senior Director, Protein Sciences, Septerna

17:00 Close of Training Seminar

INSTRUCTOR BIOGRAPHIES:

Photo of Christopher Cooper, DPhil, Senior Lecturer in Biotechnology, University of Surrey
Christopher Cooper, DPhil, Senior Lecturer in Biotechnology, University of Surrey
Chris joined the University of Surrey in 2026 and is also the Founder of Enzymogen Consulting, focusing on supporting the biotechnology and pharma community in protein and molecular biology platform development, and also business development for companies looking to access this space. Prior to this, Chris spent a number of years in industry, having joined CHARM Therapeutics, an AI-driven biotech company as Director and Head of Protein Sciences in 2022. Chris was also the Director of Protein Science at Peak Proteins, but for most of his career he has studied the biochemistry and structural molecular biology of DNA repair and replication. He was a Senior Lecturer in Biological Sciences at the University of Huddersfield for 6 years and performed his postdoctoral research at the University of Oxford, working at the Structural Genomics Consortium and Sir William Dunn School of Pathology. During this period Chris was also a College Lecturer in Biochemistry at The Queen’s College, and a Junior Research Fellow at Linacre College.
Photo of Dominic Esposito, PhD, Senior Director, Protein Sciences, Septerna
Dominic Esposito, PhD, Senior Director, Protein Sciences, Septerna
Dr. Esposito is currently the Director of the Protein Expression Laboratory (PEL) and Project Lead for the RAS Reagents Core at the Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research in Frederick, Maryland. The 38 employees in the PEL clone, express, and purify proteins from a variety of host organisms in support of the NCI RAS Initiative and for investigators at the National Institutes of Health. In addition, the PEL invents and develops novel technologies for improving protein expression and production, focused heavily on baculovirus expression technology and combinatorial cloning. Prior to his role as director, Dr. Esposito led the Clone Optimization Group in the PEL for nine years and was responsible for the generation of over 15,000 expression clones, 400 new expression vectors, and several technological innovations in protein expression. Dr. Esposito received his B.A. in Chemistry at La Salle University in Philadelphia, and his Ph.D. in Biochemistry in the laboratory of Dr. John Scocca at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School where he studied bacteriophage site-specific recombination. Dr. Esposito then worked as a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Dr. Robert Craigie at the NIDDK, where he studied the protein-DNA interactions involved in the HIV integration reaction. Prior to joining the FNL in 2001, Dr. Esposito worked for three years as a Staff Scientist in the Protein Engineering group at Life Technologies, where he helped to develop the Gateway recombinational cloning system. Dr. Esposito has published over 100 peer-reviewed manuscripts in the fields of protein expression and DNA recombination.
Photo of Richard Altman, MS, Field Application Scientist, Thomson Instrument Company
Richard Altman, MS, Field Application Scientist, Thomson Instrument Company
Rich Altman has 38 years of experience in protein expression and production. In 2025, he joined Thomson Instrument Company as a Field Application Scientist supporting protein production workflows. Before joining Thomson, Rich served in a similar role at Thermo Fisher Scientific supporting protein expression scientists. Before his Field Application Scientist roles, he worked at several pharmaceutical companies, including Amgen, Alexion, Bayer, and Upjohn, on the cloning, expression, purification, and characterization of recombinant proteins. This work supported both small-molecule high-throughput screening and protein therapeutic efforts. He received his MS degree from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine in the Department of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry.

Tuesday, 17 November 2026 08:30 – 18:35

TS7B: AI-Driven Design of Biologics: A Hands-on Guide to Using State-of-the-Art ML Protein Models

Since 2021, artificial intelligence models have revolutionized AI-driven biologics development, enabling breakthroughs in structure prediction, sequence design, and protein engineering. This course equips researchers and professionals with the expertise to leverage cutting-edge tools for structure prediction (AlphaFold, ImmuneBuilder), protein engineering with protein language models (ESM, AntiBERTy) and structure-based design (ProteinMPNN and RFDiffusion). Through a blend of lectures and hands-on exercises, participants will learn best practices for tool selection, method optimisation, and design selection. By exploring real-world applications and emerging techniques, such as BindCraft and RFAntibody, attendees will gain a practical understanding of performance capabilities, limitations, and effective workflows.
AI-Driven Design of Biologics: A Hands-on Guide to Using State-of-the-Art ML Protein Models
David P. Nannemann, PhD, Vice President, Rosetta Commons Foundation

Participants are expected to have some prior exposure to computational modeling tools (e.g. Python, R, COOT, Rosetta, AutoDock Vina, etc.) but limited experience applying them to their projects. They should be comfortable using Jupyter notebooks and prepared to explore topics such as evaluating metrics, determining appropriate sampling sizes, and selecting key adjustable parameters. While this seminar does not cover ligand docking or protein-protein docking, it is well-suited for those interested in antibody modeling and, potentially, enzyme design language models.

Hands-on instructional content will be presented as Google Colab notebooks written in python. A basic understanding of general coding principles, such as typing, loops, functions, and classes, will be sufficient. It will not be required to write your own code from scratch, but a sufficient familiarity with python to understand and edit the provided notebooks will be essential to a meaningful experience.

Topics to be covered:

  • Building practical experience with AI-based modelling of proteins
  • A breakdown of input formats, command lines, and analysis of output
  • Hands-on exercises using real-world scenarios in antibody structure prediction, developability pre-screening, immunogen solubilization, and de novo binder design
  • Discussion of, and guidance on, questions like: how many computational models to generate, what the important in silico selection metrics and ranking are, and how many designs to test in the lab
  • Pipelining of protein design software and the critical use of an “oracle”

INSTRUCTOR BIOGRAPHY:

Photo of David P. Nannemann, PhD, Vice President, Rosetta Commons Foundation
David P. Nannemann, PhD, Vice President, Rosetta Commons Foundation
David is an expert in protein engineering and computational design, with extensive experience applying AI-driven modeling tools in an industry setting. He serves as Vice President of the Rosetta Commons Foundation and Industry Chair on the Rosetta Commons board, helping bridge academic advancements with industry applications. As Managing Member of Rosetta Design Group, he collaborates with companies of all sizes to tackle complex challenges in biologics design. David's deep expertise in leveraging cutting-edge tools like Rosetta, AlphaFold, and diffusion-based models for protein design make him an invaluable guide for participants looking to apply AI-driven biologics design in real-world settings.