Puja Sapra
Senior Vice President & Head of Research & Development Biologics Engineering, Oncology Targeted Discovery AstraZeneca
Puja Sapra, Ph.D. is Senior Vice President of the Biologics Engineering & Oncology Targeted Discovery at AstraZeneca. In this role, she leads the discovery groups responsible for development of tumor-targeting modalities including antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) and radioconjugates and small molecules for Oncology Research. She also leads discovery efforts of all biologics for AZ.
Puja has broad expertise in tumor-targeting strategies and biotherapeutics including ADCs, radioconjugates, immunotherapeutics, liposomal drug delivery system, nanoparticles, antisense oligonucleotide delivery and pegylation technologies. She is a well-recognized expert in targeted therapeutics, especially in the ADC arena and has given numerous lectures at national and international meetings including plenary talks at AACR, SABCS, ESMO-TAT etc. Notable successes include contributing to three approved ADCs (Mylotarg, Besponsa, Trodelvy), and CD3- bispecifics (Elrexfio) as well as progressing several other ADCs and bispecifics in the clinic.
Seminars
- Evaluating the landscape of ADC therapies: is the risk of innovation now lower than the risk of irrelevancy?
- Assessing hurdles and opportunities to achieve differentiated ADC profiles in crowded ADC payload and target fields
- Delving into novel ADC payloads: what new MoAs are emerging and what has been demonstrated so far?
- Understanding perspectives on the future of ADC development across ADC design, targeting, and precision medicine approaches
- Understanding the scope to differentiate ADCs through novel targets and antibody engineering to widen target indications and patient populations
- Leveraging non-natural amino acid conjugation technology to design ADCs with enhanced design and properties
- Incorporating in silico and AI tools to enhance next-generation ADC engineering and desig
