Plectonic Biotech
Nicolas Quilitz is a Scientist at Plectonic Biotech with extensive experience in the field. Prior to this, Nicolas worked as a Senior Associate Scientist at Pieris Pharmaceuticals, where Nicolas was the deputy team leader of the Preclinical Assay Development Team. With a Master of Science in Molecular cell biology and Immunology, Nicolas has a strong background in planning, executing, and documenting cell-based experiments in the field of immuno-oncology. Throughout their career, Nicolas has shown expertise in organizing, communicating, and presenting scientific results within interdisciplinary project groups.
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!