Dr. Adam Elhofy is the Chief Science Officer at Essential Pharmaceuticals, LLC. Dr. Elhofy developed the core technology for the Ess line of products and aided in creating patents around novel uses of materials. He has over 14 years of scientific research experience in the areas of immunology, neuroscience, and oncology. He was funded by both the National Institutes of Health and the Multiple Sclerosis society as an investigator at Northwestern University Medical School.
His doctoral research won him the award of the Top 5 trainee scientists by the American Association of Immunologists. Dr. Elhofy has 14 scientific publications in peer reviewed journals. He has played a variety of roles with start-up biotech companies ranging from Principal Investigator to Director of Corporate Development.
Tell us a little about Cell-Ess and how it fills a need in the industry for bio-processing?
For Process Development Scientists and Manufacturers, Cell-Ess is a media supplement and feed that is added to CHO cell media platforms to provide an additional increase in productivity while improving protein quality. Cell-Ess is unique in that it can be added across different clones, media schemes and cell backbones to improve titer, even in previously optimized systems. Further, Cell-Ess increases per cell productivity, which reduces issues downstream during purification since it does not increase biomass. Finally, Cell-Ess not only improves titer, but it also improves glycosylation, which means that one does not have to sacrifice titer for quality.
What do you hope the audience will learn from attending this webinar?
The audience will learn how lipids may be a critical and overlooked player in protein formation, production, and quality, but have been a challenge to deliver to cells due to issues with solubility and stability. In addition, they will learn how adding in lipids via a novel delivery mechanism will aid in increasing titer. The talk will also demonstrate how potential improvements in Golgi function increase glycan pattern consistency and higher order glycosylation.
What do you find most challenging in this industry?
We hear many different challenges when we speak with biopharmaceutical companies. Therefore, there are several hurdles we face when collaborating with them to address their challenges. The first is trying to understand what the objectives are of the end users. In some cases, the stated simple objective is not really the end goal, so trying to understand the unique goals of each group has been a challenge. Sometimes there are added hurdles for companies when they aren’t able to share their most pressing issues and needs upfront. The second part is the much bigger challenge of crafting a method to utilize Cell-Ess within the pre-defined parameters to reach the target. Since every biopharmaceutical company has different (sometimes proprietary) practices, we strive to ensure that our recommendations are robust enough for every scenario.
What is the most rewarding aspect of your job?
The most rewarding aspect is helping solve problems collaboratively with potential users. There are often small windows of opportunity to work with a new and innovative product. The window may be small due to logistical and regulatory practices already in place, so finding the best way to use the right tool at the right time is rewarding. Of course when our solution helps a biopharmaceutical company address their current issue, it is an added bonus.
Join Dr. Elhofy and Essential Pharmaceuticals in their upcoming webinar “Mechanisms to Increase Titer While Improving Glycosylation”. Register now!