Science at the Edge
Engineering Seminar

George Georgiou 

Depts. of Chemical Engineering, Biomedical Engineering
And Institute for Cell and Molecular Biology
University of Texas , Austin TX 78712

One of the long-term interests of our group is the engineering of proteins for pharmaceutical and biotechnology applications. To this end, we have developed a set of ultra-high throughput screening techniques that enable the isolation of novel proteins with desired functions from ensembles (“libraries”) of hundreds of millions of protein variants, created by molecular biology techniques. These studies have led to the engineering of therapeutic antibodies that neutralize bacterial pathogens and of enzymes that exhibit exquisite catalytic activity. The biochemical characterization of the resulting engineered proteins has provided a wealth of mechanistic information that has aided the understanding of molecular recognition and biocatalysis. Specific examples will be discussed as part of this talk:

•   The development, and therapeutic evaluation, of recombinant antibodies.
•   The engineering of proteases that exhibit exceptional activity and electivity towards the cleavage of desired peptide targets.
•   “Humanized” non-immunogenic enzymes for therapeutic purposes.

For further information please contact Prof. Christina Chan, Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science at krischan@egr.msu.edu

Persons with disabilities have the right to request and receive reasonable accommodation. . Please call the Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science at 355-5135 at least one day prior to the seminar; requests received after this date will be met when possible.