Jagath Reddy Junutula

Senior Scientist, Discovery Oncology

POSTDOC MENTOR

• 11
  years at Genentech
• 14
  publications (2010-12)

My group focuses on translational projects involving development of antibody-based cancer therapeutics. Targeted therapy using monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) has revolutionized our approach to cancer treatment as several MAbs recognizing antigens expressed on the surface of tumor cells already have provided remarkable clinical benefit in the treatment of some types of cancers, and many others are currently in clinical development.

However, antibodies against tumor-specific antigens often lack therapeutic activity, they alternatively can be covalently linked to cytotoxic drugs to produce Antibody drug conjugates (ADCs), a promising technology for specifically targeting cytotoxic agents to tumor cells. We have recently developed a THIOMAB (antibodies with engineered cysteine residues) platform to obtain ADCs with uniform stoichiometry (~2 drugs/antibody). We are currently investigating the use of engineered THIOMAB drug conjugates to improve ADC therapeutic index, linker stability and mechanism action.

• My Focus

  Our research is also aimed at characterization of tumor antigens to discover and develop novel ADCs for several solid tumor indications.

• Publications

  • Characterization of the drug-to-antibody ratio distribution for antibody-drug conjugates in plasma/serum

    Bioanalysis, 2013, ISSN: 1757-6180

    Xu, Keyang; Liu, Luna; Dere, Randall; Mai, Elaine; Erickson, Rebecca; Hendricks, Angela; Lin, Kedan; Junutula, Jagath R; Kaur, Surinder

     View on PubMed

  • Impaired Akt phosphorylation in insulin-resistant human muscle is accompanied by selective and heterogeneous downstream defects

    Diabetologia, 2013, ISSN: 0012-186X

    Tonks, K. T.; Ng, Y.; Miller, S.; Coster, A. C. F.; Samocha-Bonet, D.; Iseli, T. J.; Xu, A.; Patrick, E.; Yang, J. Y. H.; Junutula, J. R.; Modrusan, Z.; Kolumam, G.; Stoeckli, J.; Chisholm, D. J.; James, D. E.; Greenfield, J. R.

     View on PubMed

  • Rac and Rab GTPases dual effector Nischarin regulates vesicle maturation to facilitate survival of intracellular bacteria

    The EMBO Journal, 2013, ISSN: 0261-4189

    Kuijl, Coenraad; Pilli, Manohar; Alahari, Suresh K; Janssen, Hans; Khoo, Poh-Sim; Ervin, Karen E; Calero, Monica; Jonnalagadda, Sobhanaditya; Scheller, Richard H; Neefjes, Jacques; Junutula, Jagath R

     View on PubMed

  • Membrane curvature protein exhibits interdomain flexibility and binds a small GTPase

    Journal of Biological Chemistry, 2012, ISSN: 0021-9258

    King, Gordon J.; Stöckli, Jacqueline; Hu, Shu-Hong; Winnen, Brit; Duprez, Wilko G. A.; Meoli, Christopher C.; Junutula, Jagath R.; Jarrott, Russell J.; James, David E.; Whitten, Andrew E.; Martin, Jennifer L.

     View on PubMed

  • TBC1D13 is a RAB35 Specific GAP that Plays an Important Role in GLUT4 Trafficking in Adipocytes

    Traffic, 2012, ISSN: 1398-9219

    Davey, Jonathan R.; Humphrey, Sean J.; Junutula, Jagath R.; Mishra, Ashwini K.; Lambright, David G.; James, David E.; Stöckli, Jacqueline

     View on PubMed

  • Conjugation site modulates the in vivo stability and therapeutic activity of antibody-drug conjugates

    Nature Biotechnology, 2012, ISSN: 1087-0156

    Shen, Ben-Quan; Xu, Keyang; Liu, Luna; Raab, Helga; Bhakta, Sunil; Kenrick, Margaret; Parsons-Reponte, Kathryn L; Tien, Janet; Yu, Shang-Fan; Mai, Elaine; Li, Dongwei; Tibbitts, Jay; Baudys, Jakub; Saad, Ola M; Scales, Suzie J; McDonald, Paul J; Hass, Philip E; Eigenbrot, Charles; Nguyen, Trung; Solis, Willy A; Fuji, Reina N; Flagella, Kelly M; Patel, Darshana; Spencer, Susan D; Khawli, Leslie A; Ebens, Allen; Wong, Wai Lee; Vandlen, Richard; Kaur, Surinder; Sliwkowski, Mark X; Scheller, Richard H; Polakis, Paul; Junutula, Jagath R

     View on PubMed

  • Emerging Role of ImmunoPET in Receptor Targeted Cancer Therapy.

    Current Drug Delivery, 2011, ISSN: 1567-2018

    Marik, J.; Junutula, J.R.

  • Emerging Role of ImmunoPET in Receptor Targeted Cancer Therapy.

    Current Drug Delivery, 2010, ISSN: 1875-5704

    Marik, J.; Junutula, J.R.

  • Conjugation site modulates the stability and biological activity of antibody drug conjugates.

    Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting, 2010, ISSN: 0197-016X

    Shen, B.; Xu, K.; Liu, L.; Parsons, K.; Bhakta, S.; Raab, H.; Flagella, K.; Spencer, S.; Kaur, S.; Scheller, R.; Sliwkowski, M.; Polakis, P.; Junutula, J.

  • Site-specifically ⁸⁹Zr-labeled monoclonal antibodies for ImmunoPET.

    Nuclear Medicine and Biology, 2010, ISSN: 1872-9614

    Tinianow, J.; Gill, H.; Ogasawara, A.; Flores, J.; Vanderbilt, A.; Luis, E.; Vandlen, R.; Darwish, M.; Junutula, J.; Williams, S.; Marik, J.

  • Engineered thio-trastuzumab-DM1 conjugate with an improved therapeutic index to target HER2-positive breast cancer.

    Clinical Cancer Research, 2010, ISSN: 1078-0432

    Junutula, J.; Flagella, K.; Graham, R.; Parsons, K.; Ha, E.; Raab, H.; Bhakta, S.; Nguyen, T.; Dugger, D.; Li, G.; Mai, E.; Lewis Phillips, G.; Hiraragi, H.; Fuji, R.; Tibbitts, J.; Vandlen, R.; Spencer, S.; Scheller, R.; Polakis, P.; Sliwkowski, M.

     View on PubMed

  • FIP1/RCP Binding to Golgin-97 Regulates Retrograde Transport from Recycling Endosomes to the Trans-Golgi Network.

    Molecular Biology of the Cell, 2010, ISSN: 1939-4586

    Jing, J.; Junutula, J.; Wu, C.; Burden, J.; Matern, H.; Peden, A.; Prekeris, R.

  • Glembatumumab vedotin, a conjugate of an anti-glycoprotein non-metastatic melanoma protein B mAb and monomethyl auristatin E for the treatment of melanoma and breast cancer.

    Current Opinion in Molecular Therapeutics, 2010, ISSN: 2040-3445

    Naumovski, L.; Junutula, J.R.

  • Therapeutic potential of an anti-CD79b antibody-drug conjugate, anti-CD79b-vc-MMAE, for the treatment of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.

    Blood, 2009, ISSN: 1528-0020

    Dornan, D.; Bennett, F.; Chen, Y.; Dennis, M.; Eaton D.; Elkins, K.; French, D.; Go, M.A.T.; Jack, A.; Junutula, J.R.; Koeppen, H.; Lau, J.; McBride, J.; Rawstron, A.; Shi, X.; Yu, N.; Yu, S.-F.; Yue, P.; Zheng, B.; Ebens, A.; Polson, A.G.

• Education
  • Stanford University, Postdoctoral Fellow – 2001
  • University of Witten/Herdecke, GERMANY, Alexander von Humboldt Fellow – 2000
  • Indian Institute of Science, Biochemistry, Ph.D. – 1997
  • Osmania University, INDIA, M.S. – 1991
  • Osmania University, INDIA, B.S. – 1988