Herren Wu
Herren Wu is Senior Vice President and Head of Antibody Discovery and Protein Engineering (ADPE), R&D at AstraZeneca.
Herren founded the Department of Antibody Discovery and Protein Engineering in January 2002. During his tenure, Herren has successfully integrated ADPE platforms across R&D. Under his leadership, ADPE has developed many proprietary cutting-edge technology platforms, including half-life extension technology (YTE), bi-specifics/multi-specifics, protein scaffolds, antibody-drug conjugates, Blood-Brain-Barrier technology, peptide therapeutics, phenotypic screening and most recently mass-spec proteomics and non-natural amino acid technology.
In 2006, Herren received the Senior Technology Fellow Emerald Honors award. He is also an inventor on 43 granted patents and 50 patent applications related to antibody/protein therapeutics and technologies. This is in addition to more than 60 manuscript publications.
Herren received his bachelor’s degree in Chemistry from the National Taiwan University and his doctorate in Molecular and Cellular Biology from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. He completed his postdoctoral training at The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California.
Through our work extending the half-life of antibodies, we overcame the challenges and put the antibody to the test in human clinical trials and it worked. It's like a Eureka! moment. Not many people can have that type of experience.
Awards
Senior Technology Fellow Emerald Honors award, 2006
Awards
MedImmune Science Excellence Special award for YTE technology, 2011
Awards
Who’s Who in Science and Engineering, 2000
LATEST PROJECT
The YTE leap in technology
LEADERSHIP
Build and lead Biosuperiors R&D from 2010-2013
STRATEGY
Initiate and lead the next-wave biologics technology strategy since 2013
NON-MAB TECHNOLOGIES
Initiate and lead the development of non-mAb technologies such as bi-specifics, protein scaffold, peptides, antibody drug conjugates, BBB technology, Fc engineering
Featured publications
Oligospecific antibodies for simultaneous targeting
Dimasi N, Gao C, Fleming R et al. The design and characterization of oligospecific antibodies for simultaneous targeting of multiple disease mediators. Mol. Biol. 2009. 393(3):672-92
IgG1 enhanced binding to FcRn
Dall'Acqua WF, Kiener PA, Wu H. J. Properties of human IgG1s engineered for enhanced binding to FcRn. Biol. Chem. 2006: 281(33):23514-24
Building zinc fingers
Wu H, Yang WP, Barbas CF 3rd. Building zinc fingers by selection: towards a therapeutic application. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA.1995; 92(2):344-8.
Our people
Our people share a common purpose: to push the boundaries of science to deliver life-changing medicines.
What science can do
Stories from our people and our partners reveal the passion, energy and knowledge that enable us to put science at the heart of everything we do.
Our company
We are a global, science-led biopharmaceutical business and our innovative medicines are used by millions of patients worldwide.
Join AstraZeneca
and help us deliver life-changing medicines
Be among our employees who continue to make us an innovation-driven company that stands firmly among the world’s leaders in biopharmaceuticals.