Our next interview from The World Vaccine Congress in Washington this April is a conversation with Mabtech’s Dr Tyler Sandberg, who joined us at the event to present in the Immune Profiling track on “Characterising vaccine-induced immune responses with ELISpot and FluoroSpot assays”. Dr Sandberg is Mabtech’s Product Manager for ELISpot and Fluorospot, overseeing “day-to-day things” with the assays and working across the team to “improve our products” and understand how customers are using these products.
Assays to characterise vaccine-induced immune responses
We began by considering Dr Sandberg’s session at the Congress, and asked for an insight into some of the key concerns here. He emphasises that both are “now very well established assays”. The first ELISpot assay was done in the “late 80s”!
“It’s an assay that’s been around for a long time, but it’s a really great standardised assay.”
ELISpot has contributed to the assessment of HIV vaccines in the 90s and, more recently, has been “essential” in evaluating new COVID-19 vaccines. Dr Sandberg suggests that in the “early 2000s” people began to explore replacing the enzymatic development with Fluorophore detection, which also facilitates “multiplexing”. This is a “powerful” way to “get a lot more data”.
Mabtech: a one-stop shop
Evidently, Mabtech (certainly as represented by Dr Sandberg!) has plenty of information and product understanding as it enables customers to meet various needs. We asked about the distinguishing factors in a competitive space; is Mabtech meeting an unmet need or standing above competition?
“What makes us unique, I think, is that we are very much a one-stop shop.”
Monoclonal antibodies are developed “in house” in Stockholm, where the organisation was founded by 3 PhD students who decided to start a business after researchers identified them as “really good” at mAb development. This was “around the same time” that ELISpot started “taking off”.
“Because we control everything, we produce everything in house…we offer the best instruments in the market.”
Furthermore, Dr Sandberg believes that the team is “really good at the customer support side of things”.
“We love getting in contact with the researchers, hearing how they’re using our kits, and how they’re using ELISpot and FluoroSpot in ways that we didn’t think possible at first.”
Applications
Our penultimate question invited Dr Sandberg to share some recent uses or applications of the products his team is supplying. He shared the example of a 2023 publication covering a new neoantigen cancer vaccine for pancreatic patients. ELISpot was used throughout the vaccine evaluation process.
“It was really nice to see this standardised assay still being used today in brand new vaccine fields.”
Mabtech’s website has a great publication database for anyone who wants to look closer at other examples.
Why WVC?
As always, we conclude by asking about the event, and why our experts are joining us for the Congress. Dr Sandberg shares that “it’s really fun just going round and meeting everyone”. He reflects that, in the “age of remote work”, in-person events provide opportunities to learn and network.
“Overall, the networking is really great!”
It was a pleasure to speak to Dr Sandberg about his work; we hope that you enjoy the conversation!
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