Plectonic Biotech
Christos Kontos is a Senior Scientist and Bioconjugation Specialist at Plectonic Biotech since January 2024. Christos previously worked at the Technical University of Munich from June 2016 to December 2023 in various roles such as Postdoctoral Researcher, Researcher PHD Student, and Associate Researcher. Christos also has experience as a Researcher at the University of Patras and as an Undergraduate Research Assistant at ELDRUG S.A. Christos holds a PhD in Peptide Biochemistry from the Technical University of Munich, a Master's degree in Medicinal Chemistry: Drug Discovery and Design from the University of Patras, and a Bachelor's degree in Chemistry from the University of Patras.
Plectonic Biotech
Antibody-based immunotherapies have great potential for the treatment of tumor diseases. However, an undesired over-stimulation of the immune system can lead to side effects that require the therapy to be discontinued. This overstimulation has two causes: First, the target antigens are often present both on the tumor tissue and on the healthy tissue. Secondly, the antibodies are active throughout the body and not only locally on the tumor. In order to solve these problems, we at Plectonic developed an "on/off button" for antibody immunotherapies. This is an ultra-miniaturized nanoswitch made of DNA. The nanoswitch can specifically recognize tumor cells and recruit the body's own immune cells to fight these cells. This enables the immune system to fight tumor cells in a targeted and "on demand" manner and leads to lower activity on healthy tissue and thus to fewer side effects. We term this new class of immunotherapeutics LOGIBODY - logic-gated antibody!