Devin Quinlan (Sasisekharan Lab)

An Inter-residue Network Approach to Study the Neutralizing Epitopes of Ebola Virus Glycoprotein

Infections caused by Ebola viruses lead to severe hemorrhagic fever and result in death in as many as 90% of cases. Many therapies are focused on the viral coat protein, glycoprotein (GP), as it is the only protein to regularly come into contact with the host immune system. Here, we use an inter residue network approach to identify highly constrained epitopes on the surface of GP, and evaluate these epitopes in the context of current anti-GP therapies.

Thomas Segall-Shapiro (Voigt Lab)

Stabilizing Gene Expression Against Changes in Context

Gene expression levels can be perturbed by many factors, leading to failures in synthetic genetic systems. To address this, we have created stabilized promoters that incorporate simple regulatory systems to buffer gene expression against changes in context. Focusing on expression differences from copy number, we can reduce a 20-fold change in gene expression to less than 1.5-fold. These regulatory cassettes are also expected to buffer gene expression against other perturbations, such as a change in the number of free ribosomes or RNAPs.