Jim McNally , CSO Sword Bio

Choosing a contract research organization (CRO) is one of the earliest—and most consequential—decisions a biotech company makes. While CRO selection is often framed around immediate study needs, timelines, or cost, this short-term view can create downstream challenges as programs advance. In reality, the right CRO functions not as a vendor, but as a long-term scientific…

Scalable Organizational Structure in the CRO Environment Rapid growth challenges not only bioanalytical workflows, but also the organizational structures that support them. For sponsors, a common concern when working with a fast-growing CRO is whether scientific rigor, data quality, and regulatory discipline can be maintained as teams expand and programs multiply. A scalable CRO organization…

Bioanalytical laboratories sit at a critical juncture in drug development, supporting non-clinical toxicology/PK studies and human clinical trials. Ensuring compliance with both 21 CFR Part 58 (“GLP”) for non-clinical work and with Good Clinical Laboratory Practice (GCLP) frameworks for clinical sample analysis builds data integrity, regulatory trust and operational robustness. In this article we review…

Immunogenicity—the immune system’s ability to recognize and respond to a therapeutic protein—remains one of the greatest challenges in biologics development. Unwanted immune activation can generate anti-drug antibodies (ADAs) that neutralize efficacy, accelerate drug clearance, or provoke hypersensitivity reactions. Even when responses are subclinical, they can compromise pharmacokinetics and increase interpatient variability. Because immunogenicity can arise…

Immunogenicity testing—assessing whether a vaccine antigen or vector will provoke an immune response—has long relied on experimental assays (in vitro T cell and B cell assays, ELISpot, cytokine readouts) and ultimately clinical data. As datasets expand and computational tools advance, **machine learning (ML)** and **artificial intelligence (AI)** are redefining how we predict, optimize, and understand…