We create engineered protein ligands with altered biochemical and biophysical properties with several goals in mind. As examples, these engineered proteins are being used as tools for studying the relationship between properties such as binding kinetics and affinity, and biological effects like cell signaling, proliferation, and migration. We are also developing these engineered proteins as therapeutics and diagnostic agents for applications including cancer and regenerative medicine. In this talk, examples of engineered proteins with translational impact in cancer therapy will be presented. We are also creating new technologies for protein engineering.  Our team has developed a high-throughput screening platform that enables massively parallel, quantitative biochemical measurements to be performed on millions of protein variants expressed from yeast or bacteria. We used this technology to rapidly discover an antibody against a clinical cancer target, evolve an orange fluorescent protein biosensor, and engineer an enzyme with reduced sensitivity to its inhibitor. These three distinct protein engineering applications, each with unique assay requirements and different host organisms, highlight the flexibility and broad technical capabilities of this new technology platform.

New approaches for high-throughput analysis and engineering of enzymes and protein therapeutics

251st National Meeting (2016)

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