Due to copyright issues, an electronic copy of the thesis must be ordered from the faculty. For the faculty to have time to process the order, the order must be received by the faculty at the latest 2 days before the public defence. Orders received later than 2 days before the defence will not be processed. After the public defence, please address any inquiries regarding the thesis to the candidate.
Trial Lecture – time and place
See Trial Lecture.
Adjudication committee
- First opponent: Professor Jens Preben Morth, DTU - Technical University of Denmark, Denmark
- Second opponent: Senior Scientist Benedicte Stavik, Oslo University Hospital, Norway
- Third member and chair of the evaluation committee: Associate Professor Andreas Lossius, University of Oslo
Chair of the Defence
Professor Kjetil Retterstøl, University of Oslo
Principal Supervisor
Professor Jan Terje Andersen, University of Oslo
Summary
The therapeutic efficacy of many protein-based therapeutics is limited by brief target exposure due to their short half-lives. This bottleneck necessitates frequent invasive administrations that negatively affect patient compliance and quality of life. Thus, there is an urgent need for engineering strategies that can improve their pharmacokinetic properties.
A first generation of long-acting protein-based therapeutics, either based on monoclonal IgG antibodies or fusion proteins where a therapeutic agent is fused to either an IgG1 Fc or human albumin, has entered the market. However, their half-lives are limited to 2-7 days in humans, far from the 3-week long half-lives of IgG1 and albumin in their natural context. Thus, the therapeutics must still be administered frequently and there remains a need to improve the pharmacokinetics of such fusion designs.
Thus, this thesis explores complex biology together with molecular engineering to design albumin-fused therapeutic candidates with extended plasma half-life and optimal functional properties. The thesis presents the development of next-generation albumin-fused therapeutics with enhanced plasma half-life and therapeutic efficacy.
Additional information
Contact the research support staff.