Engineered Proteins
Our team is interested in bioengineering single-agent cytokine/antibody fusion proteins for targeted immune activity manipulation. Cytokines role in regulating innate and adaptive immunity make them attractive therapeutic agents as they can stimulate the immune system to treat cancer and infectious diseases or suppress the immune system to treat autoimmune disorders and prevent transplant rejection. Unfortunately, cytokines multifaceted functions make them ineffective and often toxic as drugs. Anti-cytokine antibodies have shown to selectively direct cytokine activity towards particular immune cell subsets. We have built on this concept to develop novel fusion proteins that link cytokines with anti-cytokine antibodies to create targeted agents that therapeutically bias immune responses. These molecular therapies have a breadth of research and translational purposes, and their modular format have applications in many cytokine system.
Single-chain hIL-2/F5111 antibody fusion protein that potently and selectively activates and expands Tregs.
Engineered Human Cytokine/Antibody Fusion Proteins Expand Regulatory T Cells and Confer Autoimmune Disease Protection
An engineered fusion protein prototype for the design of intratumoral therapies.
An Engineered Immunocytokine with Collagen Affinity Improves the Tumor Bioavailability, Tolerability, and Therapeutic Efficacy of IL-2