Prof. Dr. P.W.H.I. (Paul) Parren

I am dedicated to translate antibody biology and immunotherapy knowledge into innovative therapeutics. I am curious to understand structure-function relationships in order to discover and develop novel drugs and technologies to combat disease.

Next to my academic career, I am active in the biotech industry where I use basic immunological insights to invent innovative medicines. I am founder and CSO at Gyes, which aims to develop multispecific therapeutic antibodies. Previously, I was scientific director and head of R&D at Genmab and Lava Therapeutics. I serve as the chairperson of the Board of Directors of The Antibody Society, a non-profit trade organization.

My research focuses on understanding antibody biology and immunotherapy at the molecular level and to translates these findings to novel medicines. I contributed to the development of clinically translated technologies (DuoBody, HexaBody and Gammabody), and the approved therapeutic antibodies ofatumumab (Arzerra, Kesimpta) daratumumab (Darzalex, Darzalex-Faspro), teprotumumab (Tepezza), tisotumab vedotin (Tivdak), amivantamab (Rybrevant), epcoritamab (Epkinly), teplizumab (Tzield), teclistamab (Tevayli) and talquetamab (Talvey). Ofatumumab was approved in 2009 for the treatment of Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia and in 2020 in a subcutaneous formulation for Multiple Sclerosis. Daratumumab was first approved in 2015 for the treatment of Multiple Myeloma. Teprotumumab was approved for the treatment of Active Thyroid Eye Disease (Graves’ orbitopathy in 2020. Tisotumab vedotin (an antibody-drug conjugate) and amivantamab (an EGFR-cMet bispecific antibody) were approved in 2021 for the treatment of recurrent or metastatic cervical cancer and for metastatic NSCLC with EGFR exon 20 insertion.