Principal Investigator Bernhardt Trout
Co-investigator T Hatton
Biopharmaceutical, including antibodies constitute the most rapidly growing class of human therapeutics for the treatment of numerous indications, including cancer, chronic inflammatory diseases and infectious diseases. One of the major problems encountered in biopharmaceutical therapies is the inherent instability of biopharmaceuticals to degradation processes, such as aggregation, oxidation, hydrolysis, and deamidation. Our group has a major effort in developing a mechanistic and quantitative understanding of these processes, leading to new approaches to stabilizing biopharmaceuticals.
Part of the work involves developing a mechanistic understanding how therapeutic antibodies aggregate during long-term storage. We employ molecular simulation tools in collaboration with experimental techniques to elucidate aggregation mechanisms and determine molecular engineering strategies for antibody stabilization. Lab members working in this area include Naresh Chennamsetty, Veysel Kayser , and Vladimir Voynov.
Another part of the work focuses on understanding interactions between additive and proteins and the design of additives to stabilize proteins.