Christoph Rader, PhD
Christoph Rader is an associate professor (with tenure) in the Department of Immunology and Microbiology. Rader received his bachelor's in Biochemistry and Chemistry from the University of Bayreuth in 1988 and his master's and doctoral degrees in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from the University of Zurich in 1991 and 1995, respectively. After completing postdoctoral research at Scripps Research with Professor Carlos F. Barbas III from 1996-99, Rader joined the Scripps Research faculty on the La Jolla, California campus in 1999 as assistant professor in the Department of Molecular Biology. In 2003, Rader joined the National Cancer Institute (NCI) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) where he served as senior scientist and head of the Antibody Technology Section within NCI's Experimental Transplantation and Immunology Branch, Center for Cancer Research. In 2012, Rader returned to Scripps Research as a faculty member on the institute's Jupiter, Florida campus. In 2018, he became associate dean of graduate studies.
Rader's research focuses on the development and application of technologies for antibody drug and target discovery in cancer, with a particular focus toward technologies at the interface of biology and chemistry. His laboratory's target discovery efforts are aimed at identifying new cell surface antigens suitable for monoclonal antibody (mAb) cancer therapy. Their drug discovery efforts are focused on developing and utilizing antibody display, antibody engineering and antibody conjugation methods for improving the potency of mAbs.
