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SUMMARY:Campath-1H: how a famous antibody found its disease - Professor Al
 astair Compston\, Professor Emeritus of Neurology\, Department of Clinical
  Neurosciences
DTSTART:20160222T180000Z
DTEND:20160222T190000Z
UID:TALK63110@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Beverley Larner
DESCRIPTION:Abstract: The lecture will tell two stories\, each with its ow
 n history\, which came together in 1991 and then played out over the next 
 25 years. In 1975\, César Milstein and Georges Köhler described a techni
 que for making unlimited amounts of a specific antibody. Through protein e
 ngineering\, these monoclonal antibodies were developed into a new class o
 f medicines. A pioneering antibody - Campath-1H\, developed between 1979 a
 nd 1988 - was soon tested in a variety of clinical settings. Although usef
 ul\, it seemed that more could be achieved from such a powerful drug if th
 e right disease could be identified and treated.\n\nIn 1823\, Augustus D
 ’Este\, grandson of George III\, became unwell. To the modern reader\, h
 is diary expresses the hopes and fears of the person with multiple scleros
 is. By the late 1980s coherent ideas on the pathogenesis of multiple scler
 osis began to take shape\; and Campath-1H was the perfect medicine with wh
 ich to test the emerging hypothesis on the core disease mechanism. The fir
 st patient was treated in 1991. There followed a roller-coaster series of 
 successes and disappointments that taught much about the disease and led e
 ventually to an understanding of pivotal events involved in damage to the 
 brain and spinal cord. With the completion of large phase 2 and 3 clinical
  trials confirming its high efficacy and safety profile\, Campath-1H (now 
 renamed Alemtuzumab) was then licenced and prescribed around the world for
  this difficult and potentially disabling disease of young adults. By 2013
 \, after 25 years\, Campath-1H had found its disease.   
LOCATION:Bristol-Myers-Squibb Lecture theatre\, Department of Chemistry
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