Protein Engineering and Protein Drug Discovery

In the mammalian immune system, hosts generate a wide variety of antibodies to target foreign molecules. Protein:protein and protein:ligand interaction is an important way to modulate the availability/activity of biomolecules in almost all life forms. As a result, high affinity protein binders have great applications in research and medicine.

Guided by structures, our group is using in vitro direct evolution methods such as phage display and yeast display systems to select high affinity binders include but not limited to affibody, monobody, nanobody, Fab, scFv and Ab. The interaction between binder and target protein will be assessed by ELISA, Biacore, ITC etc biophysical methods, and further validated and improved by complex structures. Finally, the in vitro and in vivo biological activity of the selected candidates will be evaluated by cellular and animal models.  Our ultimate goal is to develop novel therapeutic agents to treat autoimmune diseases and cancer.