MacroGenics digitalizes R&D to accelerate breakthrough cancer treatments

MacroGenics is a biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering and developing monoclonal antibody-based cancer therapeutics. Headquartered in Rockville, MD, their R&D organization has established innovative platforms for antibody drug conjugates, bispecific checkpoints, and next generation T-Cell engagers.

Having advanced several candidates into the clinic and into commercial production,  MacroGenics embarked on a multi-faceted transformation to digitalize their R&D processes with the goals of increasing efficiency and time to milestone. MacroGenics maintains fully integrated biologics capabilities that span discovery, protein engineering, animal modeling, process development, manufacturing, clinical trials, and regulatory approvals. It’s critical that these specialized teams can work collaboratively and review data together.

They selected Benchling as a technology partner to build a digital platform spanning Research and BioPharmaceutical Development (BPD), with the aims of fostering collaboration, increasing operational efficiency, and improving access to data. Key elements included data capture, process development, workflow coordination, data modeling, and analysis. 

Bringing Research and BPD onto a unified digital platform

MacroGenics had been considering the role digital solutions could play in their R&D organization for several years. With several therapeutic candidates entering clinical trials and intentions to increase the speed to file for IND candidates, the time became right to explore digital options. There were several factors that were important as they considered this journey.

One key consideration was bringing Research and BPD onto a shared technology platform. The Research group at MacroGenics consists of teams focused on antibody engineering, protein science, immunology, antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs), and translational medicine. The BPD group has teams focused on cell line development, cell culture sciences, purification sciences, analytical sciences, and drug product sciences. These specialized teams collaborate with each other through material transfers, data sharing, analytical tests, and knowledge sharing.

The previous systems in place were not adequately supporting MacroGenics as they pursued their ambition to speed up time to IND. There were no standard technology solutions for data capture, and some processes were still being supported by paper. “One scientist expressed that ‘she used to spend 30 minutes a day just dropping printouts into a lab notebook’,” notes Manasi Nawathe, Associate Scientist II at MacroGenics, “Benchling freed that time up for her to get more of her high-priority work done.”

MacroGenics knew that the selection of a digital platform was an important decision. They wanted to make sure any new system could accommodate a range of R&D functions as well as differing levels of technological familiarity amongst their scientists. Benchling was identified as an established technology leader with a proven track record in the industry. Through the evaluation process, they confirmed that Benchling could bring their Research and BPD functions onto a shared platform. An important consideration was the ability to provide solutions suitable for all their specialized teams, including many that were transitioning from paper-based systems. Key elements of the solution include an enterprise-wide digital notebook with templatized entries, data capture into a structured data model, integrated sample and inventory management, and cross-team workflow management. 

With Research and BPD teams on Benchling, collaboration across the organization has become more efficient. “We’re constantly handing off samples between teams,” explains Nawathe. “With our new workflows, we’re able to capture all of the information about the samples in a standardized way, as well as receive the results.”

Providing specialized capabilities for process development teams

MacroGenics’ BPD group has 5 specialized teams that work collaboratively across a range of process development and CMC studies. Their work is an essential component as lead candidates progress towards IND and clinical studies. Being on a shared technology platform with their Research colleagues was an important consideration for this group, but they also wanted solutions that were more tailored to the structured process development work they perform.

Benchling was deployed across BPD to support process development workflows across cell line development, cell culture sciences, purification sciences, analytical sciences, and drug product sciences. Key components include the ability to model process recipes, plan studies with experimental variations, perform batch execution, automate data capture, and assemble data for analysis.

“We’re now able to improve collaboration across teams, such as running analytical methods on samples coming from our cell culture, purification, and drug product teams,” notes Nathalie Gerassimov, Ph.D., Senior Scientist in Development at MacroGenics. “Our data is now more organized and structured, which is important since our data will span years of important work and decisions that we don’t want to lose sight of.”

Driving adoption and outcomes with a focus on user experience

MacroGenics initiated their digital transformation to increase R&D efficiency and speed. To realize these outcomes, they knew that their scientists would need to embrace new technologies. Benchling’s Bioresearch and Bioprocess solutions matched the way these groups operated and helped them find ways to accelerate their work.

For example, Gerassimov notes, “We used to have to go through folders of PDFs and spend a ton of time finding sample data. We can now get through analytical data review much faster using capabilities like global search. This is also going to support our ability to track down data for regulatory filings.” Nawathe added, “Our Drug Product Sciences team had a good idea of how we wanted the data to end up for review and analysis, and we were able to have this implemented for us using templates that aligned to these expectations.” 

Adoption of the Benchling digital solution was high amongst R&D scientists, starting in the first month. Users gravitated towards modules that were uniquely configured for their roles and workflows, such as the ability to configure and execute process recipes on the Cell Culture Sciences team, while gaining the ability to collaborate around data across the R&D organization. Teams valued having a shared platform and language that mapped to their work together. During team meetings, people started just presenting right from their Benchling entries without having to create a separate set of slides. “Benchling became a way for our teams to collaborate and share ideas,” observes Nawathe, “I did some advanced dashboarding and my colleagues in cell line development saw it and wanted to do the same for their team.”    

Looking towards a future of evolution and AI

MacroGenics is constantly innovating their science and processes. They value having a system that could be deployed to meet their current needs, but one that also remains adaptable as they evolve. The rapid advances being made in artificial intelligence (AI), such as machine learning and Large Language Models (LLMs), have caught their attention to advance their programs. Nawathe notes, “Having structured data to feed into these models is a critical starting point.”