ChemBE Seminar Series: Jennifer Maynard

Description

Jennifer Maynard, a Packard fellow and professor of chemical engineering at the University of Texas at Austin, will give a talk titled "Engineering the Antibodies to Outsmart Pathogens" for the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering.

This is a hybrid event; to attend virtually, use Zoom ID 919 5918 2879 with passcode 270887.

Abstract:

There is growing interest in development of antibodies to provide instant immunity that protects susceptible individuals against infectious diseases, especially pathogens for which no vaccine is yet available. However, many of these pathogens, especially those that manifest as highly transmissible or latent infections, express complex arrays of virulence factors and are adept at avoiding the immune system. Some organisms have developed strategies to selectively destroy anti-pathogen antibodies, while others create decoys that trick the host immune system into generating antibodies that are at best non-protective and, at worst, enhance pathogenesis. Design of pathogen-resistant antibodies can present novel therapies and in turn guide development of protective vaccines for these challenging pathogens. This talk will provide an overview of our progress engineering antibodies and antigens resistant to specific immune defense mechanisms used by pathogens including B. pertussis, human cytomegalovirus, and SARS-CoV-2.

About the Speaker:

Maynard's research group aims to develop advanced antibody therapeutics to treat or prevent infectious diseases, using a combination of biological and engineering principles. The antibody, which served as the focus of her doctoral work, was subsequently licensed and developed as AnthimTM and received FDA approval to prevent anthrax in humans in 2016. Her group showed that a pair of antibodies they engineered to prevent and treat pertussis were highly protective in adolescent and neonatal baboon models of disease and earned Orphan Drug Designation. Her group helped design a super-stable COVID-19 spike variant (HexaPro) while has entered clinical trials as part of several novel vaccines. On-going work includes design of improved pertussis vaccines and therapeutics targeting cytomegalovirus.