Contact

Marcel Passon
Laboratory for General Biochemistry and Physical Pharmacy
Ghent University
Ottergemsesteenweg 460
9000 Gent
Belgium
Tel: 0032 9 264 8047 (secretary)
Tel: 0032 9 264 8049 (direct)

E-mail: Marcel.Passon@UGent.be

Biography

Marcel Passon started his Bachelor in Pharmaceutical Sciences at LMU Munich in 2014. In 2019, he obtained his Master’s Degree and in 2021, he became a licensed pharmacist in Germany. He performed his master thesis, titled ‘Impact of Disease-Causing Missense Mutations on Subcellular Localization and Function of the CLN3 Protein’ at the Walther Straub Institute of Pharmacology and Toxicology at the Medical Faculty of LMU Munich. In February 2022, he joined the Laboratory of General Biochemistry and Physical Pharmacy at Ghent University as a PhD student in the new research group of Prof. Dr. Hristo Svilenov.

Research interests

Antibody engineering, biopharmaceutics, biophysical characterization of proteins, formulation development of biologics

Summary of Research Project(s)

Мonoclonal antibodies are the most successful class of biotherapeutics. Conventional antibodies use up to six hypervariable loops called complementarity-determining regions (CDRs) to bind antigens. The CDR composition has a large impact on the stability. It was recently discovered that, in contrast to conventional antibodies, some bovine antibodies bind to antigens via a knob mini-domain located in one ultra-long CDR. My project aims to provide a better understanding of the biophysical properties and stability of antibodies with ultra-long CDRs that can potentially lead to the development of novel therapeutic proteins.