Engineering Biology Objectives & Technical Achievements
Develop platforms for rapidly and effectively identifying drugs to treat non-infectious diseases.
Engineering DNA | Biomolecular Engineering | Host Engineering | Data Science |
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Rapid and cost efficient synthesis of genetic circuits. Parallel and error-free genome engineering of mammalian cell lines. |
Development of novel, high-affinity agents, such as antibody proteins, nucleic acids, and other macromolecules, that bind drug targets. Macromolecular adducts (chemical “tags”) to control the distribution and delivery of drugs within cells, tissues, and organs. Novel modulators of cell pathways that show little or no off-target toxicity. |
Genetically-encoded reporters for real-time tracking of drug activity in cells, tissues, and microbiomes. Microbial reporters to detect gastrointestinal tract cell stress signals. |
Develop automated, large-scale screening platforms for drug discovery. Powerful associative analyses to link gene and protein networks to disease states. Models to predict biased accumulation of drug in certain tissues based on the chemical and/or physical properties of the drug. Drug-to-disease database and associated software/informatics tools to rapidly evaluate potential for drug repurposing. |
Identify patient-specific drugs.
Engineering DNA | Biomolecular Engineering | Host Engineering | Data Science |
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Identify patient-specific genetic biomarkers. |
Artificial co-evolution of macromolecular therapeutics which change in response to a patient’s unique biochemistry. Anticipatory library of therapeutic variants that contain best-matches for patient-specific drug target variants. |
Development of patient-matched disease models (such as organoids). |
Develop libraries of drug efficacy correlated to de-identified patient biomarkers, used to identify promising patient-specific drugs. Use modeling and bioinformatics to predict novel interventions on an individualized basis. |