Mehabaw Derebe
Principal Scientist Merck & Co
Dr. Mehabaw G. Derebe is a Principal Scientist at Merck, with expertise in biologics discovery, protein sciences, and analytical characterization. He previously served as a Senior Scientist at Janssen Biotherapeutics and held research positions at UT Southwestern and Addis Ababa University. Dr. Derebe holds a PhD in Molecular Biophysics from UT Southwestern Medical Center.
Seminars
Wednesday 24th June 2026
Panel Discussion: Leveraging Early Strategies to Mitigate Clinical Toxicity in TCE Therapeutics
12:30 pm
- Exploring design strategies to decouple cytokine production from therapeutic ability to bypass dose-limiting toxicities like CRS without compromising efficacy
- Deep diving into how tumor cells evade detection through antigen escape and the development of next-generation engagers designed to maintain long-term pressure on cold tumors
- Determining the optimal level of antigen expression required for clinical success
Thursday 25th June 2026
Discovery, Engineering and Optimization of a Bispecific T-Cell Engager Against a Novel Low Copy Number Tumor Antigen
11:30 am
- Discovery of the novel tumor antigen, focusing on the identification strategies used to validate its high tumor selectivity and the challenges associated with targeting a protein with such a low-copy-number expression profile
- Rational engineering of the bispecific scaffold, detailing the optimization of the CD3 and tumor-binding domains to ensure a stable immunological synapse can form even when target density is minimal
- Optimization of the therapeutic window, highlighting how binding affinities were fine-tuned to maximize T-cell mediated killing of tumor cells while mitigating the risks of off-tumor toxicity and systemic cytokine release.
