Host Pathogen Interactions: Structural Biology of Host-Pathogen — Core group
Assistant Professor, Bioengineering
I am fascinated by the power of viral adaptation and view 'Virus Learning' as a biological analogue to ‘Machine Learning’. Moreover, I am certain that by synergizing these two approaches in automatic processing pipelines, revolutionary improvements can be made at the intersection of synthetic biology and biomedical sciences.
At KAUST, my team will start by tackling a major bottleneck that flaws the manufacturing of viral gene therapy vector productions. These vectors are key to accessing cell types and organs in the human body for medical interventions. Yet, manufacturing remains difficult and inefficient even for the most commonly used vector format: Adeno-associated virus vectors (AAVs).
Using synthetic biology approaches, we will work on innovative and scalable platforms that address these shortcomings.
Schmidt F, Muecksch F, Weisblum Y, Da Silva J, Bednarski E, Cho A, Wang Z, Gaebler C, Caskey M, Nussenzweig MC, Hatziioannou T, Bieniasz PD. Plasma neutralization of the SARS-CoV-2 omicron variant. New England Journal of Medicine 2021
Schmidt F, Weisblum Y, Rutkowska M, Poston D, Da Silva J, Zhang F, Bednarski E, Cho A, Schaefer-Babajew DJ, Gaebler C, Caskey M, Nussenzweig MC, Hatziioannou T, Bieniasz PD. High genetic barrier to SARS-CoV-2 polyclonal neutralizing antibody escape. Nature 2021
Wang Z, Schmidt F, Weisblum Y, Muecksch F, Barnes CO, Finkin S, Schaefer-Babajew D, Cipolla M, Gaebler C, Lieberman JA, Oliveira TY, Yang Z, Abernathy ME, Huey-Tubman KE, Hurley A, Turroja M, West KA, Gordon K, Millard KG, Ramos V, Da Silva J, Xu J, Colbert RA, Patel R, Dizon J, Unson-O’Brien C, Shimeliovich I, Gazumyan A, Caskey M, Bjorkman PJ, Casellas R, Hatziioannou T, Bieniasz PD, Nussenzweig MC. mRNA vaccine-elicited antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 and circulating variants. Nature 2021
Schmidt F., Weisblum Y., Muecksch F., Hoffmann H.-H., Michailidis E., Lorenzi J. C. C., Mendoza P., Rutkowska M., Bednarski E., Gaebler C., Agudelo M., Cho A., Wang Z., Gazumyan A., Cipolla M., Caskey M., Robbiani D. F., Nussenzweig M. C., Rice C. M., Hatziioannou T., & Bieniasz P. D.. Measuring SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing antibody activity using pseudotyped and chimeric viruses. Journal of Experimental Medicine 2020
Weisblum Y., Schmidt F., Zhang F., DaSilva J., Poston D., Lorenzi J. C., Muecksch F., Rutkowska M., Hoffmann H.-H., Michailidis E., Gaebler C., Agudelo M., Cho A., Wang Z., Gazumyan A., Cipolla M., Luchsinger L., Hillyer C. D., Caskey M., Robbiani D. F., Rice C. M., Nussenzweig M. C., Hatziioannou T., & Bieniasz P. D.. Escape from neutralizing antibodies by SARS-CoV-2 spike protein variants. eLife 2020
Schmidt F., Keele B. F., Prete G. Q. D., Voronin D., Fennessey C. M., Soll S., Kane M., Raymond A., Gifford R. J., KewalRamani V., Lifson J. D., Bieniasz P. D., & Hatziioannou T.. Derivation of simian tropic HIV-1 infectious clone reveals virus adaptation to a new host. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) 2019