ThioBridge™ Poster: Advancing Site-Specific Conjugation for Next-Generation ADCs

First-generation linker chemistries often yield heterogeneous, serum-labile antibody-drug conjugates, limiting potency and complicating scale-up. At Festival of Biologics 2025, Robert Holgate, PhD — Vice President, Research & Innovation at Abzena — unveiled new data on ThioBridge™, our site-specific conjugation platform that replaces the natural inter-chain disulfides of an antibody with a three-carbon bridge to create next-generation ADCs.

The poster demonstrates that ThioBridge™ consistently drives conversion to single-DAR species (up to 80 percent DAR 4), resists payload loss during a 96-hour serum challenge, and improves solubility even with highly hydrophobic linker–payload combinations. Comparative hydrophobic-interaction chromatography shows markedly tighter peak profiles than maleimide or lysine methods, confirming homogeneity and streamlined purification.

A highlighted case study — MBRC-101, an EphA5-targeted ADC built with a cleavable ThioBridge™-MMAE linker (DAR 4) — achieved potent tumor regression across lung adenocarcinoma, squamous-cell carcinoma, and triple-negative breast-cancer PDX models, supporting its successful IND submission and first-in-human study.

Because ThioBridge™ operates without antibody engineering, accommodates a broad toolbox of linear, cyclic-PEG, and cyclodextrin spacers, and couples seamlessly to auristatin, duocarmycins, oligonucleotides, and more, it enables rapid design–make–test cycles while preserving pharmacokinetics. Together with Abzena’s end-to-end CMC capabilities, the platform offers a faster, lower-risk route to stable, potent, and manufacturable ADCs.

Download the full poster to see how ThioBridge™ can transform your conjugate strategy and accelerate your oncology pipeline.