The Chain: Protein Engineering Podcast

You can’t forecast the next epidemic with precision, so why do we keep building preparedness plans that depend on guessing? Host Dennis Burton, Ph.D., sits down with Jim Crowe, Jr., M.D., professor and director of the Vaccine Center at Vanderbilt University, to map a more durable approach: AHEAD 100—Advanced Human Epidemic Antibody Defenses 100—an index-fund-style program to create and stockpile human monoclonal antibody drugs for the 100 infections most likely to spark major outbreaks. The goal is to take best-in-class neutralizing antibodies, move them beyond early clinical testing, and get them ready to deploy when the world needs them. They also honestly discuss scientific accountability, what the public is asking of researchers, and how to think about gain-of-function research without slogans.

Links from this episode:
The Scripps Research Institute
Vanderbilt University Medical Center

How have antibody trends changed over the decades? Janice Reichert, Ph.D., founder and editor-in-chief of mAbs, joins host Paul Carter, Ph.D., to discuss the evolution of monoclonal antibody therapeutics and their experiences with shaping—and documenting—the field. Their conversation covers the advances that have transformed the industry, evolving success rates for antibody therapeutics, and the growing sophistication of multispecific antibodies, antibody-drug conjugates, and more. Plus, they discuss both AI and China's emergence as major forces in antibody development. 
Links from this episode:  
Genentech
mAbs

July 14, 2026 | Most ADCs today lean on the same Topo-1 payloads—and resistance is catching up. Jack Elands, Ph.D., founder and CEO of Adcytherix, speaks with host Rakesh Dixit, Ph.D. about what “next-generation ADCs” should mean if we care about patients, not just pipeline counts. Their conversation gets specific about where differentiation comes from: novel payloads with new mechanisms of action, better therapeutic index choices, and smarter design decisions that reduce the toxicities that make patients quit therapy early. They also pressure-test the hype around bispecific ADCs and dual-payload ADCs. 

Links from this episode:  
Adcytherix

At this year’s PEGS Boston, industry experts gathered on a panel to explore how AI and machine learning are deployed in biologics R&D today. Moderated by Peter M. Tessier, Ph.D., Albert M. Mattocks professor of pharmaceutical sciences and chemical engineering at University of Michigan, the panel consisted of Andrew Buchanan, Ph.D., head of discovery at a stealth-mode biotech company; Norbert Furtmann, Ph.D., head of biologics AI and design of large molecules research at Sanofi; Konrad S. Krawczyk, Ph.D., founder and CSO at NaturalAntibody SA; Andrew C.R. Martin, Ph.D., emeritus professor of bioinformatics and computational biology at University College London; Melody Shahsavarian, Ph.D., senior director of data strategy and digital transformation of biotherapeutics discovery research at Eli Lilly & Company; and Bernhardt L. Trout, Ph.D., professor of chemical engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.  

Links from this episode:  
Pharmaceutical Sciences & Chemical Engineering, University of Michigan 
University of Michigan 
Sanofi 
NaturalAntibody SA 
Bioinformatics, UCL 
Biosciences Computational Biology, UCL 
University College London   
Eli Lilly & Company

May 12, 2026 | When it comes to drug discovery, either you find a rare, clean target and everything clicks, or you spend a decade chasing biology that refuses to cooperate. Daniel Chen, M.D., Ph.D., founder and CEO of Synthetic Design Lab, makes the case for a different playbook: objective-driven protein engineering, where we start with the outcome and design biologics that can execute it with built-in logic. With host Andrew Bradbury, Chen unpacks the SYNTHBODY platform and what “multi-tier logic gating” means in real drug design. They dive into logic-gated antibody drug conjugates, where target summation can boost binding, internalization, trafficking, and payload delivery and where an additional AND gate can trigger multiplier functions that go beyond cytotoxic payloads. 

Links from this episode:  
Specifica
Synthetic Design Lab