Event
BIOE Seminar: Molecular Engineering to Turn Immunity On and Off
Friday, May 3, 2024
9:00 a.m.-10:00 a.m.
A. James Clark Hall, Room #2121
Katharina Maisel
maiselka@umd.edu
Jeffrey Hubbell
Professor
University of Chicago
Molecular Engineering to Turn Immunity On and Off
Abstract
The immune system exists in a delicate balance of mounting active, effector responses to fight infection from invading pathogens and to kill mutated cells that could lead to cancer, while existing in an active state of tolerance to the non-self contents of the gut such as food and to self proteins throughout the body. Dysfunction can lead to susceptibility to infection and cancer on the one hand, and to allergy and autoimmunity on the other. We are developing protein engineering- and materials engineering-based immunotherapies to tip this balance one way or the other – for example engineering nanomaterials and cytokines to trigger in-situ immune reactions to cancer cells on the one hand and engineering protein antigen delivery systems to inverse vaccinate against autoimmune diseases to re-establish immunological tolerance to self or to treat allergic disease such as allergic asthma.
Speaker Bio
Jeff Hubbell is the Eugene Bell Professor in Tissue Engineering at the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering of the University of Chicago. With more than 400 papers and 120 issued US patents, he uses biomaterials and protein engineering approaches to investigate topics in immunotherapeutics. As an engineer within translation to clinic in mind, his laboratory develops approaches to ameliorate allergy and autoimmunity, including inverse vaccination in diseases such as Type 1 diabetes, multiple sclerosis, celiac diseases, food allergy and allergic asthma by promoting the body’s own immune system to establish tolerance, and to treat cancer via promoting the immune system to break the immune tolerance that is established by tumors. His laboratory also pursues technology in vaccination, both in the context of infectious disease and cancer. He was elected to the US National Academy of Engineering in 2010, the National Academy of Inventors in 2014, the National Academy of Medicine in 2019, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2021, and the National Academy of Sciences in 2023.
Hubbell employs synthetic polymers and engineered proteins to manipulate immunity in the contexts of autoimmunity, inflammation, allergy, and cancer. His laboratory explores both antigen-specific approaches (vaccines in cancer and infectious disease, inverse vaccines in autoimmunity, allergy, and anti-drug immunity) and antigen-nonspecific approaches (cytokines in inflammation and autoimmunity, and cytokines and chemokines in cancer immunotherapy).
