Jonathan Krog (BIRNBAUM & GIFFORD LABS)

Investigating Virus-like Particles as Yeast Display Binding Reagents

The development of targeted immunotherapies relies on the design of T cell receptors and antibodies with favorable binding properties. While yeast display as a means for directed evolution of immune receptors has been successful in creating breakthrough therapies for a number of diseases, many bottlenecks that limit further innovation remain. In this work we aim to address one of these bottlenecks by validating virus-like particles as a versatile yeast display binding reagent that can increase the throughput of TCR-pMHC binding experiments.

Abhi Aditham (ZHANG & WANG LABS)

Modification of mRNA Poly(A) Tails to Augment Expression

Therapeutic mRNA has recently emerged as a platform for vaccine development. Despite advances in therapeutic mRNA engineering, the platform remains limited in its utility by its relatively short lifetime. Chemical modification of nucleotides is a promising method to increase nucleic acid stability, and is frequently used in engineered anti-sense oligos (ASOs). Here we describe a strategy to augment therapeutic mRNA stability by engineering poly(A) tails with enhanced nuclease resistance.