BTEC Seminar on Upstream Process Development

BTEC Seminar Series

Registration is required but seminars are free and open to all. Free facility tours are typically available immediate following each seminars. Please register for those separately here: btec.ncsu.edu/facility-tours/

Title:
Ring Therapeutics vectors: a new class of modular targeted medicine

Speaker:
Alessandra Mancini, PhD, Senior Scientist in Upstream Process Development at Ring Therapeutics

Abstract:
Anelloviruses (ANVs) and Bromoviruses (BMVs) belong to the Anelloviridae and to the Bromoviridae families of viruses, respectively. ANVs are small, single-stranded circular DNA viruses, characterized by a non-enveloped capsid that have coevolved with humans for millennia. BMVs are plant RNA viruses that are regularly ingested as part of a human diet and are found in a host of human tissues beyond the digestive tract.

ANVs and BMVs are both characterized by one single capsid protein that assemble to form capsids. We have leveraged the single protein structure to develop virus-like particles VLPs) as therapeutic delivery vehicles, including vector-drug and vector-oligo conjugates. Our VectorBricks™ viral vector platform employs a standard recombinant capsid protein expression step, allowing for the purification of capsid building blocks. These blocks are then used for in vitro assembly to encapsulate payloads in the capsid lumen. Here I report an overview of the AnelloVector® manufacturing process, focusing on two case studies that improved the productivity of the upstream process and the scale-up of our recombinant capsid protein production process to 50 L scale. These improvements and the scalability of the capsid production process demonstrate the potential of the VectorBricks™ platform to industrialize manufacturing of therapeutics for targeted medicines.

Biography:
Alessandra Mancini, PhD is a Senior Scientist in Upstream Process Development at Ring Therapeutics, a pre-clinical Flagship Pioneering funded company. In her role, she develops upstream manufacturing strategies for a new class of targeted medicines – Ring Therapeutics’ novel vector conjugates.

Previously she worked in the Viral Vector Upstream Process Development team at 2seventy bio where she advanced gene and cell therapies from early to late-stage development.

Alessandra holds a MSc in Biomedical Science from University of Florence, Italy, a PhD in Endocrinology from Queen Mary University of London, UK and a Postdoctoral Fellowship in Neuroendocrinology from Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School.