Vicky Appleman
Director, Oncology Drug Discovery Takeda
Seminars
Thursday 5th November 2026
Panel Discussion: Maximize the Value of Classical Payloads Through Smarter Design & Better Development Decisions
3:30 pm
- Assess whether the performance ceiling of established payloads is driven by the payload itself or by broader ADC design factors, including antibody biology, internalization dynamics, and target selection
- Explore the impact of tumor biology and cell-cycle kinetics on ADC efficacy, discussing whether reliance on traditional cytotoxic mechanisms leaves significant tumor populations untreated and how developers can address these limitations
- Examine how linker design, payload permeability, and medicinal chemistry have been used to fine-tune bystander killing, highlighting lessons from both efficacy gains and toxicity liabilities
- Debate how antibody engineering, immune-mediated mechanisms of action, and novel ADC platforms can unlock greater value from proven payload classes without requiring entirely new warheads
Thursday 5th November 2026
Applying a Decade of Topoisomerase ADC Experience to Build the Next Generation of Payloads
4:15 pm
- Distil the most important translational and clinical lessons from the widespread adoption of topoisomerase I payloads across multiple tumor settings
- Analyze which resistance mechanisms could have been anticipated and which only emerged through large-scale clinical use, informing more effective development strategies moving forward
- Translate real-world experience into actionable guidance for designing nextgeneration topo payloads and identifying orthogonal mechanisms capable of addressing resistant patient populations
