Friday Feature: Irene Sanjuan-Nandin

Dr Sanjuan-Nandin is an alumnus of University College London and is currently a Senior Scientist at Cancer Research UK. Coming from a strong background in translational immunology, her main interest is the research and development of new strategies in immunotherapy. Her research career started with her PhD project in cellular and molecular immunology, which led to strong interest in antibody drug development.

During her post-doctoral position at University College London, she worked in cellular immunotherapy, particularly immunotherapy for multiple myeloma. This project complemented her previous experience in humoral immunotherapy and broadened her knowledge in cancer immunotherapy.

Dr Sanjuan-Nandin has not only rich academic experience but commendable industry experience as well. Her position at UCB Pharma gave her the opportunity to apply her previous academic experience in a very innovative project to discover new cancer antigens harnessing the natural immune response against tumours. She returned to academia (Imperial College London) where she gained experience in working with recombinant antibodies, which complemented her knowledge of monoclonal antibodies.Her work was focussed on the expression and purification of antibody fragments (scFv) and conjugations to photo-sensitizers to improve the specificity of photodynamic therapy (PDT).

Dr Sanjuan-Nandin was appointed at Cancer Research UK in 2011 to apply her expertise in antibody development into a new platform to obtain human monoclonal antibodies from human B cells stimulated in vitro. The success of this unique platform led to the establishment of a the spin-off company: Blink Therapeutics. She currently investigating the application of this strategy in vaccine development.

Specializations: Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, Immunoassay, Biotechnology, Immunology

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