John Lambert

Dr. John Lambert is one of the pioneer leaders in the ADC field and one of the most recognised figures in the industry.

In 1982, Dr. Lambert joined the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard Medical School, working on the ImmunoGen-funded programs to develop antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) and immunotoxins as anti-cancer therapeutics. Dr. Lambertjoined ImmunoGen in 1987 when the company established independent research laboratories in Cambridge, Massachusetts. After working in a variety of roles at the company, Dr. Lambert served as Chief Scientific Officer from 2008 until 2015.

During Dr Lambert’s tenure in leadership roles at ImmunoGen, the company invented the ADC technology that resulted in the Genentech/Roche drug, Kadcyla® (approved in 2013 for treating HER2+ breast cancer), as well as numerous other ADCs taken into clinical development. 

In 2016, Dr Lambert was elected as a Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE). In 2018, he was appointed as an Honorary Professor of Queen’s University, Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK.

Professor James P. Tam is the Professor of the Herbalomics and Drug Discovery Laboratory and Lee Wee Nam Professor of School of Biological Sciences, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore since 2001. Since 2008, he is also the Director of Synzymes and Natural Products Center (SYNC).

Tam’s research work focuses on the discovery, design and development of therapeutics, particularly orally active biologics, immunologics and anti-infectives.  He is also actively involved in peptide and protein chemistry, selective chemoenzymatic ligation for peptides, proteins and dendrimers, synthesis and oxidative folding of cysteine-rich peptides where he has published more than 330 papers in these areas of research.

In addition to his scientific research, he has also been active in the peptide community. Besides serving on many editorial boards, he has organized international peptide and protein symposia and was a cofounder of the past ten International Chinese Peptide Symposia. He received the Cathay Award from the Chinese Peptide Society, China in 1996. He was also honored as Honorary Professor at Peking University and Peking Union Medical College. He was the founder of the Peptide and Protein Society of Singapore.

Prof. Nick Devoogdt studied Molecular Biology at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB, Belgium) and received his MSc degree in 1997. He graduated as a PhD in Applied Biological Sciences in 2004, studying cancer genetics and tumor immunology. In 2013 he became assistant professor in the In vivo Cellular and Molecular Imaging laboratory (ICMI) and since 2016 tenure-track full professor and principal investigator. His research aims to develop novel applications in molecular and nuclear imaging and targeted therapies. His current focus is on the camelid single-domain antibody-technology as targeting vehicles in disease areas ranging from oncology and immunology to cardiovascular research, inflammation and diabetes. More in particular, his research is focused on the generation of new probes for their application (nuclear or other types of imaging and therapy) in small animal models of disease, and translate proficient compounds to the clinic.