Anokha Ratnayake
Scientific Director of ADC Chemistry Pfizer
Anokha Ratnayake served as Director of Discovery Chemistry at Nurix Therapeutics from 2023 to 2025, where she led teams and platform innovation across early drug discovery with a focus on degrader antibody conjugates (DACs) and DNA‑encoded libraries. She spearheaded the creation and advancement of Nurix’s DAC platform, driving linker design, bioconjugation workflows, in‑house analytical capabilities, and IP‑enabling innovations. Previously, Anokha spent over 16 years at Pfizer, where she contributed extensively to bioconjugation chemistry, DEL technology, and natural product‑derived payload design. She is recognized for her cross‑functional leadership, analytical expertise, and commitment to developing next‑generation therapeutic modalities.
Seminars
Focusing on the high-value challenge of improving established cytotoxins, this hands-on workshop tackles the "why now" of evolving chemistry for traditional payloads. Providing a tactical playbook for leveraging next-generation linker design and site-specific conjugation to overcome the limitations of first-generation ADCs and achieve best-inclass profiles.
This is a must-attend for teams looking to maximum the value of proven payloads by understanding that where you attach is as important as what you attach by:
This workshop will gather experts to discuss:
- Systematically evaluating how strategic changes to the conjugation site impact critical attributes such as antibody stability, antigen binding, and off-target toxicity profiles
- Benchmarking novel linker designs, from peptide-based to hydrophilic polymer shields to assess their ability to improve solubility, reduce aggregation, and enable higher DARs without compromising tolerability in traditional payloads.
- Building a comparative case study on site-specific vs. stochastic conjugation for a traditional payload, analyzing hard data on homogeneity, pharmacokinetic consistency, and manufacturability to justify the investment in advanced conjugation technologies
