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The biophysical properties of therapeutic antibodies influence their manufacturability, efficacy, and safety. To develop an anti-cancer antibody, we previously generated a human monoclonal antibody (Ab417) that specifically binds to L1 cell adhesion molecule with a high affinity, and we validated its anti-tumor activity and mechanism of action in human cholangiocarcinoma xenograft models. In the present study, we aimed to improve the biophysical properties of Ab417. We designed 20 variants of Ab417 with reduced aggregation propensity, less potential post-translational modification (PTM) motifs, and the lowest predicted immunogenicity using computational methods. Next, we constructed these variants to analyze their expression levels and antigen-binding activities. One variant (Ab612)—which contains six substitutions for reduced surface hydrophobicity, removal of PTM, and change to the germline residue—exhibited an increased expression level and antigen-binding activity compared to Ab417. In further studies, compared to Ab417, Ab612 showed improved biophysical properties, including reduced aggregation propensity, increased stability, higher purification yield, lower pI, higher affinity, and greater in vivo anti-tumor efficacy. Additionally, we generated a highly productive and stable research cell bank (RCB) and scaled up the production process to 50 L, yielding 6.6 g/L of Ab612. The RCB will be used for preclinical development of Ab612.

Adoptive cell therapy has progressed rapidly following the success of CAR-T therapy, with NK cells emerging as strong candidates for next-generation treatments. NK cells naturally recognize abnormal cells without genetic modification and do not cause graft-versus-host disease, making them suitable for mass production from donor blood. Traditional NK cell expansion often relies on cancer-derived feeder cells, posing safety and quality concerns. This review examines both feeder cell-based and feeder-free NK cell culture methods. We analyze the limitations of feeder-based approaches and categorize feeder-free strategies, including cytokine combinations, antibody stimulation, blood components, nanoparticles, and hydrogels. Among these, nanoparticle-based methods show strong potential for enabling safe, scalable, and standardized NK cell expansion without the risks associated with feeder cells. In this paper, we review recent advancements in NK cell culture techniques and propose the potential of nanoparticle technology in developing feeder-free NK cell culture methods.

Silver nanowires (AgNWs) have been successfully demonstrated to function as next-generation transparent conductive electrodes (TCEs) in organic semiconductor devices owing to their figures of merit, including high optical transmittance, low sheet resistance, flexibility and low-cost processing. In this article, high-quality, solution-processed AgNWs with an excellent optical transmittance of 96.5% at 450 nm and a low sheet resistance of 11.7 Ω/sq were demonstrated as TCEs in inorganic III-nitride LEDs. The transmission line model applied to the AgNW contact to p -GaN showed that near ohmic contact with a specific contact resistance of ~10 −3  Ωcm 2 was obtained. The contact resistance had a strong bias-voltage (or current-density) dependence: namely, field-enhanced ohmic contact. LEDs fabricated with AgNW electrodes exhibited a 56% reduction in series resistance, 56.5% brighter output power, a 67.5% reduction in efficiency droop and a approximately 30% longer current spreading length compared to LEDs fabricated with reference TCEs. In addition to the cost reduction, the observed improvements in device performance suggest that the AgNWs are promising for application as next-generation TCEs, to realise brighter, larger-area, cost-competitive inorganic III-nitride light emitters.

We investigated hybrid functional transparent conductive electrodes (HFTCEs) composed of indium-tin-oxide (ITO) and silver nanowires (AgNWs) for the enhancement of output efficiency in GaN-based ultraviolet light-emitting diodes (UVLEDs). The HFTCEs demonstrated an optical transmittance of 69.5% at a wavelength of 380 nm and a sheet resistance of 16.4 Ω/sq, while the reference ITO TCE exhibited a transmittance of 76.4% and a sheet resistance of 18.7 Ω/sq. Despite the 8.9% lower optical transmittance, the UVLEDs fabricated with HFTCEs achieved a 25% increase in output efficiency compared to reference UVLEDs. This improvement is attributed to the HFTCE’s twofold longer current spreading length under operating forward voltages, and more significantly, the enhanced out-coupling of localized surface plasmon (LSP) resonance with the trapped wave-guided light modes.

The authors investigated the localized surface plasmon (LSP)-enhanced light output efficiency of GaN-based light-emitting diodes (LEDs) fabricated with indium-tin-oxide (ITO)/silver nanowire (AgNWs) transparent conductive electrodes (TCEs). The ITO/AgNWs TCE yielded optical transmittance of 91.7% at a wavelength of 450 nm, a sheet resistance of 16.4 Ω/sq, and a specific contact resistance of 1.3 × 10 −3 Ωcm 2 . Notably, the LEDs fabricated with ITO/AgNWs TCE showed 51.5% greater output power than the reference LEDs fabricated with ITO TCE. This could be due to the combined effects of higher optical transparency and, more importantly, vertical out-coupling of the localized surface plasmon (LSP) resonance with the trapped wave-guided mode of light.