ImmuneSpec

The ImmuneSpec team wishes you warm and relaxing holidays! We are grateful for 2024, a year marked by exciting projects, inspiring encounters, the energy drawn from delivering results resulting in satisfied customers, advancements in our innovations, and the growth and expansion of our team. We look forward to 2025 to continue our dedication to supporting you with excellent immunopeptidomics services. Happy holidays and our best wishes for a successful 2025!

Fully energized after (again) a super-interesting annual EIP conference in Lisbon. Great to (re)connect with all these immunogenicitist, get insights in their topnotch immunogenicity assessments, in the latest advances in the field and to see some of our data presented! Great to know that this group of experts is making tomorrows therapeutics better and safer 💪🏻

I look forward to the 16th annual EIP conference that will start on Monday in Lisbon! I look forward to a symposium filled with interesting presentations on the latest developments in immunogenicity of biopharmaceuticals and to connect with customers, partners and other immunogenicity-enthusiasts! Reach out if you want to connect or come see our poster on MHCI and MHC II MAPPs of biopharmaceuticals!

ImmuneSpec at the 16th EIP Event in Lisbon. ImmuneSpec will be participating in the 16th European Immunogenicity Platform (EIP) event in Lisbon from February 24–26, 2025. The European Immunogenicity Platform (EIP) serves as a central meeting place for European biopharmaceutical companies and scientific experts working in the field of immunogenicity. Its mission is to foster know-how and expertise by facilitating close collaboration between industry and scientific advisors. At this year’s EIP event, we will be presenting our latest research through a poster titled: High-Sensitivity MAPPs Assay for High-Confidence Immunogenicity Risk Assessment of Biotherapeutics. Please reach-out at: info@immunespec.com if you have interest in getting more information. We look forward to exchanging insights, discussing challenges, and exploring new opportunities with researchers, industry professionals, and anyone passionate about immunogenicity.

Meet our new team member Marissa! We’re thrilled to welcome Marissa Dubbelaar, PhD, to our team as a Bioinformatician! With a strong background in immunopeptidomics and multi-omics data integration, she brings valuable expertise in transcriptomics, (epi)genomics, and mass spectrometry-based proteomics. Over the last four years, Marissa worked on tumor antigen discovery and immunopeptidomics, contributing to peptide repertoire analysis, clinical immunotherapy trials, and personalized peptide vaccine development. She also played a key role in developing and implementing open-access bioinformatics pipelines, including nf-core workflows, to help standardize and automate high-throughput data processing. With her experience in computational biology, workflow optimization, and translational research, she is a great addition to our team. We’re excited to have her on board and look forward to her contributions!

To celebrate the International Day of Women and Girls in Science and because the true value of ImmuneSpec lies in the exceptional team behind it (which, incidentally, comes with a strong dose of girl power), I want to shine the spotlight on the women of our core team. This group of highly skilled women excels in lab work, mass spectrometry analysis, data science, and business development. They don’t take a backseat to anyone: they stand strong, driving innovation, delivering high-quality immunopeptidomics, and working with dedication and teamwork. That’s why I am proud to put these amazing women in the spotlight today. Our three male colleagues of the core team are left out of the picture (just for today 😉), but we appreciate them just as much every other day! There are still a few faces who haven’t been introduced on our LinkedIn page yet—stay tuned, that will follow soon!

We are excited to share that our advanced immunopeptidomics platform is now equipped with the Bruker TimsTOF-ULTRA2 mass spectrometer—the newest, state-of-the-art MS system that enhances our ability to achieve ultra-high sensitivity and deep peptide coverage, ensuring unparalleled precision and throughput in our analyses. At ImmuneSpec we strive to stay at the forefront of immunopeptidomics innovation, continuously advancing our capabilities to deliver the highest-quality data and insights. With the TimsTOF-ULTRA2, we are well-equipped to tackle the most complex challenges in immunogenicity screening, antigen discovery, and vaccine development, providing cutting-edge insights to our customers.

Outlook for Medicine Development in 2025 A recent article in Nature offers an outlook on the future of medicine development. One of its key points emphasizes the growing influence of artificial intelligence (AI). AI-driven technologies are expected to play a central role in uncovering novel drug candidates, optimizing the discovery process, and advancing immunogenicity testing. Prediction tools powered by AI are rapidly evolving, offering unprecedented insights into molecular interactions, potential immunogenic risks, and therapeutic efficacy. However, as noted in the article, "Biological systems are highly complex, and moving from predictions at the molecular level to those at the cellular or human level is challenging." This observation underscores one of the fundamental challenges in leveraging AI for drug development: the difficulty of translating in silico predictions into reliable biological outcomes. While prediction models can identify molecular targets and assess potential risks like immunogenicity, validating their accuracy in complex biological systems remains a critical hurdle. Current in silico prediction tools for immunogenicity testing often overestimate risks, leading to false positives that can slow down development or eliminate viable candidates prematurely. At ImmuneSpec, we address this challenge with our MAPPS assay. Rather than extending AI-driven in silico models, the MAPPS assay works alongside them to confirm that AI predictions translate into reliable biological results. As AI continues to reshape the landscape of medicine, tools like the MAPPS assay will be indispensable for bridging the gap between theoretical predictions and practical applications. #MAPPS #Immunogenicity #AI https://lnkd.in/e5Adx8-x

Outlook for Medicine Development in 2025 A recent article in Nature offers an outlook on the future of medicine development. One of its key points emphasizes the growing influence of artificial intelligence (AI). AI-driven technologies are expected to play a central role in uncovering novel drug candidates, optimizing the discovery process, and advancing immunogenicity testing. Prediction tools powered by AI are rapidly evolving, offering unprecedented insights into molecular interactions, potential immunogenic risks, and therapeutic efficacy. However, as noted in the article, "Biological systems are highly complex, and moving from predictions at the molecular level to those at the cellular or human level is challenging." This observation underscores one of the fundamental challenges in leveraging AI for drug development: the difficulty of translating in silico predictions into reliable biological outcomes. While prediction models can identify molecular targets and assess potential risks like immunogenicity, validating their accuracy in complex biological systems remains a critical hurdle. Current in silico prediction tools for immunogenicity testing often overestimate risks, leading to false positives that can slow down development or eliminate viable candidates prematurely. At ImmuneSpec, we address this challenge with our MAPPS assay. Rather than extending AI-driven in silico models, the MAPPS assay works alongside them to confirm that AI predictions translate into reliable biological results. As AI continues to reshape the landscape of medicine, tools like the MAPPS assay will be indispensable for bridging the gap between theoretical predictions and practical applications. #MAPPS #Immunogenicity #AI https://lnkd.in/e5Adx8-x

Today we celebrated “Verloren Maandag” (Lost Monday) at ImmuneSpec. Great to share this typical Antwerp yearly habit (Sausage rolls and apple pastries) with our on site team members. Elise didn’t want to miss this event and came for lunch despite schools being closed but don’t worry, everyone in the picture (for some despite very young age) knows already a lot about immunopeptidomics 😊