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What’s Next for Large-Scale Proteomics? With Chris Whelan, Janssen

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  • September 19, 2024
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Featuring:

Chris Whelan, PhD

Director, 

Genetic studies of human populations have become a major tool for drug development. In the last few years, these studies have moved toward comprehensive proteomics profiling as well. In late 2023, a paper was published in Nature by the Pharma Proteomics Project, which characterized the plasma proteomic profiles of 54,219 UK Biobank participants. This was a precompetitive biopharmaceutical consortium that sought to provide a mapping of 2,923 proteins that identified 14,287 primary genetic associations, of which 81 percent were previously undescribed.

Chris Whelan was the lead author of this project paper, and he joins the show to discuss what’s next for these kinds of studies and their results. Whelan is a director of neuroscience on the data science and digital health team at Janssen Research & Development. He’s also chair and co-founder of the Pharma Proteomics Project.

Findings from large-scale proteomics studies, such as the one in Nature, are now making their way into translational research and everyday drug development. Whelan points to a couple of disease areas — Parkinson’s and schizophrenia — where the newly available data on proteins are triggering new active compound screens.

“We’re literally seeing a path from that big UK proteomics set to a bona fide drug program within about two years.  And hopefully within a few more years to marketed drugs,” he says.

Whelan lists some of the exciting new tools he’s using and the unique opportunities each opens for proteomics research, including Alamar’s NULISA immunoassay platform. What’s next for these extensive studies, and what are the challenges ahead in the field?

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Steve Williams, MD, PhD

CSO

Dr. Willams serves as the company’s Chief Scientific Officer. He was previously Chief Medical Officer at Standard Biotools and at SomaLogic where he pioneered the discipline for discovery and validation of predictive, diagnostic and prognostic models using machine-learning applied to large-plex proteomics. 20 such tests were used for drug characterization, safety and efficacy when incorporated in clinical drug trials at Pharma/Biotech and 17 different multivariate tests were validated and translated into regulated healthcare uses. Prior to SomaLogic, Dr. Williams was at Pfizer in the UK and the USA as a clinical triallist in Translational Medicine, and subsequently as VP, Global Clinical Technology. He sat on the National Advisory Council for the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, the Executive Committee for the FNIH Biomarkers Consortium, and worked with FDA and PhRMA on developing evidentiary standards for biomarker qualification. Dr. William’s medical training was in London, at Charing Cross and Westminster Medical School, followed by a PhD in medicine/physiology at the same institution and training in Radiology at the University of Newcastle Upon Tyne. Steve is co-inventor on 26 proteomics patents and author/coauthor on multiple foundational proteomics manuscripts.

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Justin McAnear

CFO

Mr. McAnear serves as the company’s Chief Financial Officer. He brings over 25 years of operational and financial leadership experience across various sectors and was instrumental in taking 10x Genomics public in 2019, serving as its CFO for over five years. Mr. McAnear served for over 3 years as Tesla’s VP of Worldwide Finance and Operations, supporting landmark initiatives such as the Model X and Model 3 launches and Solar City acquisition.  He also held various roles at Apple and J&J earlier in his career and served as a naval officer and aviator for over 9 years.