15/08/2026
From fundamental biology to new opportunities for therapeutic engineering🔬
We are very excited to share our new study, published in Science Immunology, where we uncover a fundamental feature of placental biology — and show how it can inspire the design of next-generation biologic medicines.
Both IgG and bind , which contributes to their remarkably long plasma half-lives. But at the placenta, something striking happens: IgG is actively transported to the fetus, while albumin is largely excluded.
This led us to ask: Can we exploit this biological selectivity to long-acting biologics with limited fetal exposure?
By fusing therapeutic antibodies or antibody fragments to albumin, we substantially reduced their transport across the placenta while retaining FcRn-mediated long plasma half-life. With an engineered albumin variant, these properties could be further tuned through rational protein design.
Importantly, the findings were consistent across mouse models and an ex vivo human placental perfusion system. In a model of fetal and neonatal ( ), restricting fetal transfer also reduced adverse effects in the offspring.
The work points toward an exciting opportunity: albumin-based engineering strategies for designing long-acting with tailored fetal exposure profiles.
A huge congratulations to first author Jeannette Nilsen and to the fantastic team of national and international collaborators who made this work possible!
👏 Kine Marita Knudsen Sand Hana Al Khabbaz, PhD., MBA. Lennart Van Ligtenberg Simone Mester Line Mathiesen Hanna Noordzij Kjell-Rune Jensen Nils Leitzinger Oda Ottersen Sopisa Benjakul Marie Leangen Herigstad Fulgencio Ruso-Julve Aina Karen Anthi Anders Moen Mari Nyquist-Andersen Torleif Tollefsrud Gjølberg Eiril Bertelsen Jason Cameron Greg Christianson Tilman Schlothauer Tor Stuge Lisbeth E. Knudsen Inger Sandlie Derry Roopenian Maria Therese Ahlen
Funding: Norges forskningsråd Helse Sør Øst Kreftforeningen Novo Nordisk Foundation Helse Midt-Norge RHF Ministry of Education, Saudi Arabia Alliance for Lupus Research National Institutes of Health (NIH)
Det medisinske fakultet ved Universitetet i Oslo The Life Science Cluster Norwegian Society for Immunology - NSI Oslo Science City Inven2 PRIMA - Precision Immunotherapy Alliance Oslo universitetssykehus OUS Innsikt - ny forskning, innovasjon og behandling Det Norske Videnskaps-Akademi Forskningsparken - Oslo Science Park Det matematisk-naturvitenskapelige fakultet, UiO Institutt for biovitenskap, Universitetet i Oslo Københavns Universitet - University of Copenhagen Universitetet i Tromsø
Fusion of therapeutic IgG antibodies to albumin inhibits transplacental transport.
