Engineering anti-inflammatory proteins using mammalian cell surface display

A central focus of this project is the study of evasins, a family of proteins found in tick saliva that bind to and inhibit multiple chemokines, which are small signaling proteins regulating immune responses and inflammation. Evasins act as versatile scaffolds that can be engineered to selectively target chemokines involved in immune and inflammatory disorders as well as cancer. This research holds strong potential for the development of targeted therapeutics for inflammatory diseases and cancer. In this research, we integrate a diverse range of tools and techniques, including structural biology, biophysical chemistry, cell surface display and selection, flow cytometry, cell biology, next-generation sequencing, and machine learning.