Vasu Jamma

Vice President, Chemistry Aarvik Therapeutics

Vasu Jamma has more than 25 years of experience in oncology drug discovery and medicinal chemistry research. He earned his PhD in Organic Chemistry from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, and subsequently conducted postdoctoral research at the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of California, San Francisco.

Throughout his career, Vasu has held scientific and leadership roles at Discovery Partners, Exelixis Inc., and pH-Pharma, where he contributed to the advancement of multiple drug discovery programs and several INDs. His work has focused on the discovery and development of small-molecule therapeutics, including the design and development of toxins as payloads for antibody-drug conjugates (ADC’s).

Vasu is a co-inventor of Cabometyx® (cabozantinib), an approved c-MET inhibitor. He is the inventor or co-inventor of more than 18 issued patents and has authored or co-authored numerous scientific publications.

Seminars

Monday 12th October 2026
Accelerating the Next Wave of Tumor- Targeting Mechanisms & Behavior
Monday 12th October 2026
Developing Hydrophilic ADCs via Engineering Novel Short Linkers & Antibody Conjugation Sites
12:30 pm
  • Linker Engineering: Introducing AQUALINK platform utilizing simple sugar groups as a spacer to engineer hydrophilic ADCs
  • Antibody Engineering: Identifying unique conjugation sites that can shield around the hydrophobic payload to result in overall hydrophilicity to the ADC
  • Breaking down novel hydrophobic ADCs In vitro and in vivo data to demonstrate differentiation from conventional ADCs 
Monday 12th October 2026
Summary Panel Discussion: Breaking Down Learnings From Pharmacology & PD Profiles to Understand In-Depth Insights for the Next Wave of ADCs
2:30 pm

Bring your burning questions to this closing panel with all the seminar day’s presenters. With all ADC pharmacology topics up for discussion, hear the speakers delve into mechanistic and PD investigation for traditional and novel ADCs to model and characterize the next wave of ADCs heading to the clinic. 

Discussion Highlights Include:

  • Exploring how pharmacology and mechanistic investigations can strengthen existing ADC knowledge and influence future ADC development
  • Debating the therapeutic properties of conditionally active and masked ADCs to assess their ability to differentiate against traditional ADC profiles
  • Discussing computational modeling and PK/PD approaches to tackle translational considerations for non-cytotoxic payload and novel format ADCs
Vasu Jammalamadaka - Speaker at 17th World ADC San Diego Summit