June 10, 2025 | This episode of The Chain features a panel discussion from May’s PEGS Boston. Moderated by Peter Tessier, Albert M. Mattocks professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Chemical Engineering at the University of Michigan, the panelists include Sarel Fleishman, professor of Biomolecular Sciences at the Weizmann Institute of Science; Kadina Johnston, senior specialist of Discovery Biologics at Merck & Co.; Vincent Ling, chief business officer of Morphocell Technologies; Arvind Rajpal, SVP of Xaira; and Max Vasquez, chief computing officer of Adimab. Together they discuss benchmarking AI/ML methods compared to traditional approaches, development of human-relevant training data, identifying and addressing core challenges in de novo designs, and more.

GUEST BIOs

Sarel J. Fleishman, PhD, Professor, Biomolecular Sciences, Weizmann Institute of Science; Chief Scientist, Scala Biodesign 
Sarel Fleishman is an associate professor at the Weizmann Institute of Science, where his research team develops a computational protein-design methodology to address challenges in biochemistry and protein engineering. As a postdoc with David Baker in Seattle (2007-2011), Sarel developed the first accurate methods for designing protein binders, culminating in the design of broad-specificity influenza inhibitors. At the Weizmann Institute (2011-), his team developed protein design methods to the level of accuracy and reliability required to design large and complex proteins such as enzymes, antibodies, and vaccine immunogens — a protein that was designed in the Fleishman lab has recently been approved for mass production as a vaccine for malaria. The team recently developed a fully automated method, called PROSS, for dramatically improving the stability and expressibility of recalcitrant proteins and several design methods for improving affinity, specificity, and catalytic rates in antibodies and enzymes. Current focuses include developing methods for designing large repertoires comprising millions of enzymes or antibodies for one-shot isolation of highly active, specific, and stable binders, inhibitors, or enzymes. Among Sarel’s academic awards were the Clore Ph.D. Fellowship (2003-2006), the Science Magazine award for a young molecular biologist (2008), a postdoctoral fellowship (2006-2009) and a career-development award (2012-2015) from the Human Frontier Science Program, European Research Council Starting and Consolidator Grants (ongoing), the Alon Fellowship, the Henri Gutwirth Prize, and the Weizmann Scientific Council Award.

Kadina Johnston, PhD, Senior Specialist, Discovery Biologics, Merck & Co., Inc. 
Kadina Johnston is a Sr. Specialist in ML Protein Engineering within Merck Discovery Biologics in South San Francisco. She works on developing machine learning methods for therapeutic discovery and engineering, including developability prediction. Kadina has a PhD in Bioengineering from the California Institute of Technology where she worked with Prof. Frances Arnold on developing and benchmarking machine learning methods for directed evolution of enzymes.

Vincent Ling, PhD, Chief Business Officer, Morphocell Technologies; Consultant Advisor, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation  
Dr. Ling currently serves as Chief Business Officer at Morphocell Technologies and is an advisor to many foundations, universities and biotechs. For over 30 years, Dr. Ling led successful research and business innovation groups in diverse biotechnology fields, including cell devices, protein engineering, biosimilars, stem cell differentiation, checkpoint inhibitors and molecular evolution of antibody scaffolds. He has held leadership positions in large, midsized and start-up environments, creating practical biotherapeutics. He has held leadership positions in Takeda, Neurotech, Adnexus (Compound Therapeutics), and Genetics Institute / Wyeth Pharmaceuticals. Dr. Ling earned a BA in Molecular Biology at University of California, Berkeley, followed by MS and Ph.D at University of Illinois, and postdoctoral training at the Harvard Biological Laboratories.

Arvind Rajpal, PhD, SVP, Xaira 
Arvind leads the Drug Discovery and Development efforts at Xaira. Prior to Xaira he led Large Molecule Drug Discovery at Genentech where he was responsible for protein and antibody discovery and engineering, and some oligonucleotide and cell therapeutics. Before Genentech he has led similar functions across large organizations, i.e. Bristol-Myers Squibb and Pfizer. Arvind has a long standing interest in antibody based therapeutics. His teams have been involved in establishing several technologies, i.e. site-specific conjugation for ADCs, charge based hetero-dimerization for bispecifics, conditional activation using pH switches, and is currently exploring ML-based de novo design and multi-parameter optimization. Arvind trained in protein biophysics and biochemistry as a graduate student in Jack Kirsch’s lab at University of California at Berkeley. He conducted postdoctoral studies in immunology studying negative selection with Astar Winoto at Berkeley. His undergraduate degree is in Chemistry and Computer Science.

Max Vasquez, PhD, Chief Computing Officer, Adimab LLC 
Max is currently head of computational biology at Adimab. Prior to Adimab, he was an independent consultant working for companies in the antibody therapeutic field including Xencor, Five Prime Therapeutics, and Galaxy Biotech, among others. He had spent part of his career at PDL Biopharma, where he was most recently Senior Director of Research, helping further to develop and deploy the Queen technology for antibody humanization, and participating in engineering of multiple antibodies, including a number in clinical development. He holds a PhD in Biophysical Chemistry from Cornell University.

MODERATOR BIO

Peter M. Tessier, PhD, Albert M. Mattocks Professor, Pharmaceutical Sciences & Chemical Engineering, University of Michigan
Peter Tessier is the Albert M. Mattocks (Endowed) Professor in the Departments of Chemical Engineering, Pharmaceutical Sciences and Biomedical Engineering, and a member of the Biointerfaces Institute at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, MI. He received his Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Delaware (2003, NASA Graduate Fellow) and performed his postdoctoral studies at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research at MIT (2003-2007, American Cancer Society Fellow). Tessier started his independent career as an assistant professor in the Department of Chemical & Biological Engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 2007, and he was an endowed full professor at Rensselaer prior to moving to the University of Michigan in 2017. Tessier’s research focuses on designing, optimizing, characterizing and formulating a class of large therapeutic proteins (antibodies) that hold great potential for detecting and treating human disorders ranging from cancer to Alzheimer’s disease. He has received a number of awards and fellowships in recognition of his pioneering work: Pew Scholar Award in Biomedical Sciences (2010-2014), Humboldt Fellowship for Experienced Researchers (2014-2015), Young Scientist Award from the World Economic Forum (2014), Young Investigator Award from the American Chemical Society (2015) and NSF CAREER Award (2010-2015).