Xiaocong Yu

Leading various antibody discovery & engineering platforms

Provide expertise in generating therapeutic antibody-drug conjugates.

Manage hybridoma-based antibody discovery projects and workflows, drive therapeutic antibody discovery campaigns employing immunizations, hybridoma generation, functional antibody identification, and coordinate with other discovery methods such as FACS, NGS and antibody screening assay.

Led a Tri-specific therapeutic antibody project, oversaw multiple antibody discovery platforms including phage display, hybridoma, single B cell sorting. Unearthed numerous antibodies targeting immunology, oncology, and inflammation diseases through state-of-the-art phage display technology. Delivered a prolific number of functional antibody hits, significantly contributing to the advancement of drug development initiatives.. Characterized candidate antibodies for their affinity, function, biophysical, immunogenicity and developability.

Established antibody discovery platforms. Executed rabbit monoclonal antibody humanization successfully retained the antibody binding affinity at a similar level of the parental antibody clones. Built Antibody Dependent Cell Cytotoxicity assays for characterizing the capability of monoclonal Ab (mAb) mediated target cell killing.

Generated a bi-specific antibody against HIV by arming neutrophils to disrupt HIV. Designed a novel backbone structure to convert an originally inactive bispecific antibody into a functional one. Led collaborative teams (internal and external sources) to construct multiple forms of HIV-specific antibodies with different epitope specificities, including secreting human IgA antibodies, variant isotypes, and subclasses. Led projects with CROs to establish a transgenic mice antibody expressing model for producing human neutralizing antibodies in murine breast milk for blocking the HIV mother-infant transmission. Trained and supervised undergraduate and graduate students and postdoctoral fellows; served as corresponding author for multiple publication and co-author for patents.

Innovated a distinctive platform for discovering fully human monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) from PBMCs, Achieved efficient generation of five human mAbs against 1918 influenza HA, leading to publication in Nature with myself serving as the first author. Played a pivotal role as a core contributor in innovating a new technology centered on single B cell sorting. Unearthed numerous and diverse fully human monoclonal antibodies against various antigen targets related to infectious diseases, encompassing respiratory syncytial virus, H5 avian influenza virus, and H3N2 influenza (1997 strain and 2003 strain) virus.

Led the creation of an immunized phage library. Developed multiple single-chain variable fragment (scFv) antibodies designed to target heparan sulfate proteoglycans on the surface of HIV-1 target cells. These innovative antibodies play a crucial role in preventing HIV infection and transmission.