Research Assistant ProfessorAddress: Y Building, Haike Road, Pudong District, Shanghai, ChinaEmail: asaxena@@shanghaitech.edu.cn
abhisheksaxena.abdn@gmail.com
Education:
Ph.D. Molecular Biology, Aberdeen University, United Kingdom, 2013
MSc Microbial Gene Technology, Madurai Kamaraj University, India, 2007
BSc (H) Biotechnology, Bundelkhand University, India, 2005
Professional:
August 2018 - present, Research Assistant Professor, Shanghai Institute for Advanced Immunochemical Studies (SIAIS), ShanghaiTech University, People’s Republic of China
June 2016 - July 2018, Senior Postdoc, Shanghai Institute for Advanced Immunochemical Studies (SIAIS), ShanghaiTech University, People’s Republic of China
May 2013 - May 2016, Postdoctoral fellow, Molecular Neuroscience and Autoimmunity, School of Mental Health and Neuroscience, Maastricht University, the Netherlands
March 2009 - March 2013, EC Marie Curie ITN Fellow, Department of Molecular & Cell Biology, Institute of Medical Sciences, Aberdeen University, United Kingdom
Research Interest: Antibody engineering and therapy
I broadly study the “Protective” and “Damaging” aspects of antibody molecules which are one the most important molecules of biological origin. Antibodies have wide applications in therapy due to their highly specific target molecule recognition properties but the damaging/pathogenic aspect of autoantibodies is an equally important, and far more challenging area of antibody research. I develop novel protective antibody molecules, scaffolds, and targeting strategies to treat cancers, microbial infections and inflammatory diseases. Major workhorses in my research are M13 phage display based molecular evolution platform and Memory B-cell immortalization antibody discovery platform.
Publications:
Fc Engineering: Tailored Synthetic Human IgG1-Fc Repertoire for High-Affinity Interaction with FcRn at pH 6.0. Saxena A et al., Antibody Engineering: Methods and Protocols, Methods in molecular biology (Clifton, N.J.) 1827:399-417, DOI:10.1007/978-1-4939-8648-4_21
Characterization of an anti-fetal AChR monoclonal antibody isolated from a myasthenia gravis patient. Saxena A et al., Scientific reports. 2017; 7(1):14426.
IgG4 autoantibodies against muscle-specific kinase undergo Fab-arm exchange in myasthenia gravis patients. Koneczny I, Stevens JA, De Rosa A, Huda S, Huijbers MG, Saxena A et al., Journal of autoimmunity. 2017; 77:104-115.
Fc Engineering for Developing Therapeutic Bispecific Antibodies and Novel Scaffolds. Liu H*, Saxena A* et al., Frontiers in immunology. 2017; 8:38. (*Joint first authors)Advances in Therapeutic Fc Engineering - Modulation of IgG-Associated Effector Functions and Serum Half-life. Saxena A, Wu D. Frontiers in immunology. 2016; 7:580.
Generation of Recombinant Human IgG Monoclonal Antibodies from Immortalized Sorted B Cells. Nogales-Gadea G*, Saxena A*, Hoffmann C* et al., JoVE. 2015; (100):e52830. (*Joint first authors)
IL-17-producing CD4(+) T cells contribute to the loss of B-cell tolerance in experimental autoimmune myasthenia gravis. Schaffert H, Pelz A, Saxena A et al., European journal of immunology. 2015; 45(5):1339-47.
Patents:
Anti-fungal antibody molecules and uses thereof.A. Porter, M. Lenardon, A. Saxena, WO Patent WO/2014/174,293 (2014)
Selected Conference:
Neutralizing Antibodies against Filamentous form of fungus Candida albicans. Abhishek Saxena, B. Bai & A. J. R. Porter. 4th ShanghaiTech-SIAIS Bioforum, Shanghai, People’s Republic of China, November 11-14, 2017
In vitro Evolution of human IgG-Fc for Enhanced FcRn Binding. Abhishek Saxena et al., 4th ShanghaiTech-SIAIS Bioforum, Shanghai, People’s Republic of China, November 11-14, 2017
Functional aspects of anti-fetal-AChR autoantibody in relation to myasthenia gravis, rhabdomyosarcoma and arthrogryposis multiplex congenita. Abhishek Saxena et al., 3rd ShanghaiTech-SIAIS Bioforum, Shanghai, People’s Republic of China, November 7-10, 2016
Generation of recombinant human IgG monoclonal antibodies from immortalized sorted B cells. Daniella Conen, Abhishek Saxena et al., 21st International Congress of the World Muscle Society, Granada, Spain, October 4-8, 2016
Saxena A et al., Cloning of an Anti-Fetal Acetylcholine Receptor mAb Isolated by Immortalization of Auto-reactive B cells from a Myasthenia gravis patient. 9 th International Congress on Autoimmunity, Nice, France, March 26-30, 2014.
Saxena A et al., scFv Phage Display Library against Complex Immunomodulatory Glycans. FINSysB Conference Candida Infection Biology – fungal armoury, battlefields and host defences, Aquafredda di Maratea, Italy, 10-14 October, 2011.
Bursaries, Awards and Honors:
1. “Excellent Staff in 2016” Honorary credential awarded by ShanghaiTech University (2016)
2. Senior Post-Doctoral Fellowship of Chinese Academy of Science (June 2016-June 2018)
3. Junior Visiting Fellowship, Dept of Immunology, UT South Western Medical Centre, Dallas, Texas 75390, USA (2012)
4. Marie Curie Initial Training Network Early Stage Researcher Fellowship – European Commission (2009-2012)
5. Junior Project Fellowship of National Institute of Immunology, Dept of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science & Technology, Govt of India, New Delhi (2008-2009)
6. IASc-INSA-NASI Summer Fellowship of Indian Academy of Science (Not availed; 2007)
