The Antibody Society, Inc., an international non-profit trade association focused on the advancement of antibody research and development, is pleased to announce the election of Drs. Katherine Harris and Eric Smith to the Board of Directors. Dr. Harris was also elected Vice President (VP) of the Society, and Dr. Janine Schuurman, who served as VP during 2022-2023, was elected President. These Directors and Officers bring enormous experience and expertise through their new roles, which they kindly accepted effective January 1, 2024.

Prof. Paul Parren, Chair of the Society’s Board of Directors remarked: “I could not be more excited by such talented and motivated individuals joining our Board. With Janine Schuurman and Katherine Harris taking charge of Society’s Senior Management and Eric Smith further broadening the Board’s expertise, I am convinced the Society can make an even stronger mark in its mission to advance the therapeutic antibody field”.

Katherine Harris, Ph.D., Chief Development Officer, Rondo Therapeutics

Dr. Katherine Harris leads all IND-enabling activities at Rondo Therapeutics and is responsible for the design and execution of preclinical drug development from candidate nomination through IND submission. Previously, she was Vice President of Discovery at Amgen where she was instrumental in providing strategic and scientific direction for antibody therapeutics in Amgen’s Oncology portfolio. While at Amgen, she led integration of the acquired TeneoBio preclinical portfolio and sequence-based antibody discovery platform while serving as site head of the Amgen Newark Research Facility. As Vice President of Discovery at TeneoBio, Katherine built and led a highly successfully Oncology Research team, making key scientific and strategic contributions to clinical candidates that resulted in 4 IND approvals in less than 6 years of company operations. Dr. Harris holds a Ph.D. in Molecular and Cell Biology from the University of California, Berkeley. She has presented in numerous national and international forums and has multiple peer-reviewed publications and issued patents.

Eric Smith, Ph.D., Executive Director of Bispecifics, Regeneron

Dr. Eric Smith is a leading figure in the field of bispecific antibodies with over 20 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry. He received his Ph.D. in Microbiology and Immunology from Duke University in 1997, and followed that with a postdoctoral fellowship at NYU. He then joined Regeneron in 2002, initially focusing on the development of cytokine traps and related molecules. His expertise in protein engineering and immunology soon drew him towards the field of bispecific antibodies, molecules that can simultaneously bind to two distinct targets and offer unique therapeutic possibilities. Dr. Smith was a founding member of the bispecific antibody group at Regeneron in 2007 and he played a key role in establishing Regeneron’s bispecific platform, which is focused on engineering fully human bispecific antibodies with optimal efficacy and safety profiles. His work has resulted in numerous patents and peer-reviewed publications, as well as the generation of more than 10 therapeutic candidate molecules currently in clinical or late-stage pre-clinical development. Currently Dr. Smith is the Executive Director of Bispecifics at Regeneron with responsibility for the discovery and development of bispecific and other antibody-based therapeutics for a variety of important areas of unmet medical need. He is also active in the protein engineering community, presenting at and helping to organize national and international conferences on antibody engineering and bispecific antibodies.

Janine Schuurman, Ph.D., Independent consultant, Lust for Life Science B.V.

Dr. Janine Schuurman’s career centers around the antibody molecule as a biological source of inspiration and as a therapeutic modality. She holds a PhD in molecular immunology from the University of Amsterdam (1997). After a few post-doctoral positions she joined Genmab in the year 2000 to develop antibody therapeutics, as one of the first ten employees on the R&D team. Throughout her Genmab years, she significantly helped propel the discovery and development of investigational therapies to help people with cancer and other diseases. She is a co-inventor of many therapeutic antibodies, including FDA-approved amivantamab (RYBREVANT® Janssen), epcoritamab (EPKINLY® Genmab/Abbvie), and others in clinical and pre-clinical stages of development. She is also a co-inventor of the successful clinically translated bispecific antibody platform DuoBody® and effector function-enhanced HexaBody® platform and the pre-clinical stage HexElect® technology. In addition, she championed many successful academic and industry partnerships in the field of antibody therapeutics and complementary fields of research. Now an independent biotech consultant (Lust for Life Science B.V.) and thought leader, Dr. Schuurman is as passionate and active as ever, collaborating with many organizations and speaking at scientific conferences around the world. She is increasingly focused on the impact of leadership and organizational culture on innovation, and it is her strong belief that being curious and valuing different expertise and capabilities is key to driving innovative research and new technologies.

About The Antibody Society

The Antibody Society, Inc. is an international non-profit trade association representing individuals and organizations involved in antibody research and development. The Society is an authoritative source of information about antibody therapeutics development, which we disseminate via our website, presentations, and publications. In addition, the Society organizes conferences and webinars on antibody research and development and related topics. The Society also serves as the home for the Adaptive Immune Receptor Repertoire Community, which focuses on developing standards and protocols for curating, analyzing and sharing antibody B and T cell receptors. As a business association, the Society can engage with government and international agencies such as the World Health Organization to discuss topics that are important to the antibody community, such as international naming conventions.