Scientists / Our Scientists

Dick Vandlen

Senior Fellow, Protein Chemistry

Years at Genentech

Publications

I joined Genentech in the spring of 1985 and have been associated with the Protein Chemistry Department almost from the beginning as Director of the department and currently as Staff Scientist. My work has led to the identification of heregulin, a ligand that activates the HER2/HER3/HER4 family of receptor tyrosine kinases, to the development of high-throughput protein refolding and purification processes, and to the development of next generation antibody therapies.

Because of Genentech’s highly collaborative environment, I have had the opportunity to collaborate with many groups throughout Research and Process Development, especially groups in Antibody Engineering, Protein Engineering, Oncology, Immunology, and Physiology. While Genentech has grown impressively since I joined, the quality of science, productivity, scientific rigor and ingenuity of the scientists at Genentech has kept pace with our growth. Coupling world-class scientists and the best technologies available to medically important problems makes Genentech an exciting place to work.

Featured Publication

Novel antibody-antibiotic conjugate eliminates intracellular S. aureus.

Nature. 2015, ISSN: 0028-0836

Lehar SM, Pillow T, Xu M, Staben L, Kajihara KK, Vandlen R, DePalatis L, Raab H, Hazenbos WL, Morisaki JH, Kim J, Park S, Darwish M, Lee BC, Hernandez H, Loyet KM, Lupardus P, Fong R, Yan D, Chalouni C, Luis E, Khalfin Y, Plise E, Cheong J, Lyssikatos JP, Strandh M, Koefoed K, Andersen PS, Flygare JA, Wah Tan M, Brown EJ, Mariathasan S.

View Abstract on PubMed

My current research focus is the development of antibody–drug conjugates for testing on many types of tumors. Our group focuses on devising methods to arm our antibodies with cytotoxic drugs using a variety of different linkers, toxins and coupling chemistries. We have an extensive effort in identifying new toxins and new linkers for these efforts and in probing the various intracellular pathways used by antibody-drug conjugates to deliver their payloads in cell culture and in tumors.

Discovery of a dual pathway aggregation mechanism for a therapeutic constrained peptide

Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences, ISSN: 00223549

Tao Chen; Shijia Tang; Elizabeth Hecht; Chun-Wan Yen; Nisana Andersen; Steven Chin; Lance Cadang; Brian Roper; Alberto Estevez; Alexis Rohou; Debby Chang; Lu Dai; Peter S. Liu; Mohammad Al-Sayah; Karthik Nagapudi; Fiona Lin; Amin Famili; Chloe Hu; Robert Kuhn; Cinzia Stella; Christopher M. Crittenden; Jason Gruenhagen; C.J. Venkatramani; Rami Hannoush; Dennis Leung; Dick Vandlen; Peter Yehl

Antibody-drug conjugates derived from cytotoxic seco-CBI-Dimer payloads are highly efficacious in xenograft models and form protein adducts in Vivo

Bioconjugate Chemistry, ISSN: 15204812 10431802

Dian Su; Jinhua Chen; Ely Cosino; Josefa Dela Cruz Chuh; Helen Davis; Geoff Del Rosario; Isabel Figueroa; Leanne Goon; Jintang He; Amrita Kamath; Surinder Kaur; Kathy Kozak; Jeffrey Lau; Donna Lee; Violet Lee; Douglas Leipold; Luna Liu; Peter Liu; Guo-Liang Lu; Nelson; Carl Ng; Thomas Pillow; Paul Polakis; Andy Polson; Rebecca K. Rowntree; Ola Saad; Brian Safina; Nicola Stagg; Moana Tercel; Dick Vandlen; Breanna S. Vollmar; John Wai; Tao Wang; Binqing Wei; Keyang Xu; Juanjuan Xue; Zijin Xu; Gang Yan; Hui Yao; Shang-Fan Yu; Donglu Zhang; Fiona Zhong; Peter Dragovich

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Dick Vandlen

Senior Fellow, Protein Chemistry

Featured Publication

Novel antibody-antibiotic conjugate eliminates intracellular S. aureus.

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