Elizabeth Hopkins

President and CEO

Sapidyne Instruments Inc.

Speaker Bio:

Elizabeth Hopkins is the Chief Executive Officer of Sapidyne Instruments, where she has been instrumental in advancing growth and measurement solutions to support drug discovery. A native of Idaho, Elizabeth joined Sapidyne in 2008 as a staff scientist and quickly progressed to senior scientist, making significant contributions in assay design, applications, and R&D. In 2014, she assisted in establishing the company's office in Germany, enhancing its global presence.

Appointed CEO in the summer of 2017, Elizabeth has driven strategic growth and fostered a culture of collaboration and excellence. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree from BSU (2007) and an MBA from BSU (2024). Under her leadership, Sapidyne Instruments continues to thrive, remaining at the forefront of scientific advancements and delivering customer-centric solutions.

Talk title:

Leveraging the power of KinExA® to measure accurate and specific binding of bispecific proteins and antibody drug conjugates.

Talk abstract:

Bispecific proteins and antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) represent a new frontier in therapeutic development, offering enhanced specificity and efficacy in targeting multiple antigens. However, accurate measurement of their binding interactions remains a challenge due to complex binding mechanisms and potential heterogeneity. This talk will give a brief review of Kinetic Exclusion Assay and how it was employed to measure bispecific antibodies and ADC in literature.

Alon Wellner, Ph.D.

VP Biology and co-founder

Aureka Biotechnologies

Speaker Bio:

Alon Wellner is the Vice President of Biology at Aureka Biotechnologies, leading a team to develop a cutting-edge therapeutic discovery pipeline using high-throughput biology and AI. He completed postdoctoral training at UC Irvine and holds a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the Weizmann Institute of Science. With extensive experience in protein and antibody engineering, Alon has held multiple leadership roles, managing multinational research teams and pioneering novel drug discovery platforms.

Talk title:

Next-Gen Antibody Engineering for GPCRs by integrating Autonomous Yeast Display and AI

Talk abstract:

Traditional antibody generation is often slow and costly. AuraQuest™ utilizes yeast surface display and autonomous hypermutation to mimic animal immunization, enabling rapid antibody discovery. Combined with the AI platform AuraPicasso™, this approach accelerates the engineering of antibodies with specific characteristics. This method has effectively targeted challenging antigens like GPCRs, demonstrating potent nanobody isolation within two weeks through affinity maturation using yeast culturing and FACS.