Research in our laboratory focuses on monoclonal and dual-targeting antibodies. We use rational protein engineering approaches (that heavily rely upon the mechanism of action) to design, express, analyze and test antibodies using cancer models and other human pathologies. We are particularly interested in understanding and overcoming the substantial clinical disparity (in terms of patient survival response rates) of the chimeric-antigen receptor (CAR) cell-based and immune checkpoint immunotherapies in solid vs. liquid cancers. Via rationally designed antibodies, which focus on TNF superfamily receptors’ basic mechanistic, clustering and activation biology (such as death receptor-5, DR5, and Fas), we closely work with tumor models of women malignancies [Ovarian and Triple Negative Breast Cancer (TNBC)]. Our goal is to engineer the next generation of therapeutic strategies with the potential to enhance tumor-immune infiltration to empower cancer immunotherapy against solid malignancies.
Although antibodies and Cancer immunotherapy remain key research areas in our laboratory, in the current COVID pandemic and the high public health demand for innovative SARS-CoV-2 targeting strategies, we also became interested in antibody-based SARS-CoV-2 spike’s furin processing (S0-S1/S2) inhibition strategies in viral-producing cells. The latter disrupts the SARS-CoV-2 chain of infection cycle to limit viral particle transmission.