LAKEPORT >> Mendocino College Chemistry Instructor John D. Chung’s and his Yale University colleague Peter L. Zhan’s research on “Computational Characterization of Afucosylation-Based IgG1 heterogeneity” was published in the Receptors and Clinical Investigation Journal.
In laymen’s terms, Chung and Zhan developed a mathematical method to ensure that biological injectable protein-based drugs are produced in a more uniform way. According to Chung, “There are basically two types of drugs, the typical pill form and the more popular biological injectable protein-based drugs which are commonly used in cancer treatment. The problem with biological drugs is that they are difficult to consistently manufacture due to their large size. The task was to create a method which would clearly identify and quantitate the individual variants found within a batch of manufactured drug to insure manufacturing consistency. Simply stated, the more uniform, consistent and of higher quality we can make a drug, the better it works on a patient.”
Biologics, as they are commonly known, are more desirable than traditional pill therapy because they have fewer side-effects. However, they are more difficult to uniformly manufacture. A traditional pill is considered a small molecule whereas a biological is considered a large molecule and can be over 100 times the size. The larger a molecule, the more difficult it is to ensure uniformity.
The method developed by Chung and Zhan could be groundbreaking influencing how manufacturers produce biologicals for cancer patients in the future. Their research was recently published in the RCI journal which has a scientific audience. Individuals from academia, bio-tech, clinical trials and the medical community are the typical readers of this journal.
“It is an honor for the Mendocino College Chemistry Department to be affiliated with the research conducted by Dr. Chung and his colleague Dr. Zhan from Yale University. In addition, Mendocino College students get to benefit from Dr. Chung’s knowledge, experience, and ideas as member of the Chemistry Department faculty committed to our student’s success,” stated Marcus A. Frederickson, Associate Professor of Chemistry at Mendocino College.
Support for publication of Dr. Chung’s research was provided by the Mendocino College Foundation, the Lake County Friends of Mendocino College, Friends of the Mendocino College Library and John Tomkins, president of the MC Board of Trustees.
