Prof. Sophia Hober

Sophia Hober is professor in molecular biotechnology at KTH. During her career, she has worked on developing affinity molecules for in vitro and in vivo diagnostics, where recent findings have led to a very effective method for finding HER2-expressing cancers via a newly developed radioactive affinity molecule. This has been confirmed in clinical studies, where small metastases, not detectable with regular methods, could be visualized. The targeting module has also been optimized for therapeutic applications. Further, prof. Hober has focused on developing molecules for highly specific purification of monoclonal antibodies. Among other applications, this effort has led to a purification method that is used globally by the majority of the pharmaceutical companies that produce and purify therapeutic antibodies (MabSelect SuRe, sold by Cytiva). Currently, one of Hober’s research focuses is the development of a novel protein domain that displays calcium-dependent binding. The ion-dependent mechanism is utilized to both develop mild affinity purification strategies and increase internalization into cells and thereby improving the therapeutic effect for cancer treatment.