Panel Discussion: Engineering Linker & Conjugation Innovations to Enable Next-Generation ADC Modalities

As the field expands beyond traditional cytotoxic payloads toward degraders and other complex, hydrophobic modalities, linker and conjugation chemistry must evolve to solve escalating biophysical challenges. From high-DAR constructs to degrader-antibody conjugates, the central question emerges: how do we push payload complexity and loading capacity without compromising stability, manufacturability, or in vivo performance?

Join leading experts as they discuss how novel linker architectures, advanced analytical precision, and site-selective

conjugation strategies can be integrated into cohesive platforms by:

  • Balancing high payload loading with biophysical stability, examining how innovative linker architectures and hydrophobicity mitigating designs can enable DAR 8 and greater while preserving solubility, structural integrity, and favorable pharmacokinetics
  • Redefining conjugation control as a platform enabler, debating how pyridazinedione-based site-selective strategies and advanced analytical tools can deliver precise, homogeneous DAR control to unlock reproducible, scalable next-generation constructs
  • Harnessing traceless and site-specific linker strategies to enable emerging modalities, evaluating how degrader-compatible, hydrophobicity-masking, and cleavable designs can expand the ADC paradigm to include degrader-antibody conjugates and other novel payload classes without sacrificing developability or therapeutic index