Event

Special Bioengineering Seminar: Steven M. Jay

Thursday, November 17, 2011
11:00 a.m.
Room 1107, Jeong H. Kim Engineering Building
Professor Helim Aranda-Espinoza
helim@umd.edu

Molecular Engineering of Biotherapeutics: Guiding Proteins Down the Road Not Taken

Dr. Steven M. Jay
Department of Medicine, Division of Cardiology
Brigham and Women’s Hospital and
Harvard Medical School

Therapeutic proteins have become significant in almost every major area of biomedicine, as exemplified by insulin and monoclonal antibodies. However, many proteins with therapeutic potential have limited utility due to undesirable off-target effects and/or unpredictable interactions with receptors. This seminar aims to demonstrate how molecular and materials engineering approaches can be used to overcome these limitations. In one example, an understanding of biomaterial properties at the molecular level has enabled design of controllable local delivery of VEGF and MCP-1 to either complement or take the place of cell transplantation. Another example will illustrate how systems-level understanding of receptor interactions can inform molecular design towards the generation of novel protein therapeutics. Specifically, I will show that an engineered ligand of the ErbB receptor system, bivalent Neuregulin, can regulate functional phenotype in cancer and cardiovascular disease by biasing signaling in a predictable manner. Thus, by applying bioengineering approaches, the potential exists to create a new generation of translational biotherapeutics.

Audience: Graduate  Faculty  Post-Docs