William Dall’Acqua is Senior Director Research & Development at MedImmune, Gaithersburg, where he supervises a group in the Department of Antibody Discovery and Protein Engineering. His team of 29 scientists is working on the discovery of new therapeutic antibody drugs and establishing novel antibody technology platforms. In particular, William’s group has developed a novel and ground-breaking strategy to improve the serum half-life of human IgG. Such long-lasting molecules have the potential to make an impact in the field of antibody-based therapy. William has been studying protein structure, function and engineering for over 20 years and has co-authored over 45 papers and one book chapter in the field. He has also been named inventor on 16 issued patents. He has Bachelor and Masters’ Degrees in Biochemistry from the University of Paris, and a PhD. in Immunology from the University of Paris in conjunction with the University of Maryland. He also spent two and a half years as a postdoctoral fellow at Genentech’s Molecular Oncology Department, before joining MedImmune.

BIOCHEMISTRY