Rate My Professor John Williams

John Williams, Ph.D., is a professor in the Department of Cancer Biology and Molecular Medicine at City of Hope and Director of the X-ray Crystallography Core. He received his B.S. from the University of California, Santa Cruz in 1990, M.Phil. and M.S. in Chemistry in 1993, and Ph.D. in Chemistry in 1995 from Columbia University, where he was mentored by Ann E. McDermott. Williams completed fellowships at Columbia University and the European Molecular Biology Laboratory.

His research focuses on structural biology, including X-ray crystallography and NMR, biophysics methods such as SPR, ITC, AUC, and CD, protein engineering, antibodies and immunotherapy, drug design, signaling, and the cytoskeleton. The Williams lab applies structural and biophysical techniques to investigate energy additivity and multivalency in macromolecular assemblies, leading to novel therapeutics including chemically-induced molecular traps, tumor-activated masked antibodies, and meditope technology for monoclonal antibody functionalization. A significant outcome is a tumor-activated anti-CTLA4 monoclonal antibody in Phase 1/2 clinical trials at Xilio Therapeutics, which Williams co-founded. He holds multiple patents, such as U.S. Patent 11,311,622 on masked therapeutic antibodies to limit off-target effects, U.S. Patent 11,279,752 on tumor-selective CTLA-4 antagonists, and U.S. Patent 11,246,942 on meditopes and meditope-binding antibodies. Representative publications include "Using quantitative single molecule localization microscopy to optimize multivalent HER2-targeting ligands" (Frontiers in Medicine, 2023), "Neutralizing monoclonal antibodies elicited by mosaic RBD nanoparticles bind conserved sarbecovirus epitopes" (Immunity, 2022), "Magic-angle-spinning NMR structure of the kinesin-1 motor domain assembled with microtubules reveals the elusive neck linker orientation" (Nature Communications, 2022), "Antibody-based redirection of universal Fabrack-CAR T cells selectively kill antigen bearing tumor cells" (Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer, 2022), and "Mechanically-interlocked, functionalization of monoclonal antibodies" (Nature Communications, 2018). These efforts advance cancer immunotherapy and precision medicine.