School of Engineering
Showing 1-10 of 15 Results
-
Anja Redecker, MD
Postdoctoral Scholar, Chemical Engineering
BioAnja Redecker attended medical school in Germany (RWTH Aachen). For her doctoral thesis - under the guidance of Univ.-Prof. Dr. rer. nat. Lüscher – she studied the functions of a protein called ASH2L, which plays a role in tumorigenesis. She analyzed the effects of ASH2L domain deletion mutants on cell growth and histone trimethylation as well as targeted ASH2L fused to dCas9 to specific promoters and examined its effects on transcription activation.
Her current research in the Swartz Lab at Stanford University focusses on engineering Hepatitis B core virus-like particles (HBc VLP) for targeted delivery of chemotherapeutics and for vaccines. The envisioned targeting delivery system allows loading the HBc VLPs with chemotherapeutics and attaching targeting ligands like single chain antibody fragments to the HBc VLP surface. This would increase targeted accumulation of the chemotherapeutic at the tumor site and decrease therapy-limiting side effects by minimizing off-target effects. To combat any new pandemic efficiently, vaccines need to be engineered and produced quickly. This fast response can be made possible by using pre-produced HBc VLPs to which the antigen of the new circulating pathogen can be attached. This technology has the potential to curb the outbreak of a new pandemic. -
Ellen Youngsoo Rim
Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering
BioPlants are increasingly vulnerable to environmental stressors—such as pathogen infection, drought, and heat—from climate change. These challenges threaten global food security and limit the carbon sequestration potential of plants. Our research goal is to sustainably enhance plant productivity and resilience through protein engineering. We engineer proteins involved in plant immune and hormone signaling pathways using directed evolution in high-throughput single cell systems. Directed evolution is a synthetic biology approach that enables rapid development of proteins with novel or improved functions. We combine this approach with machine learning, which allows us to learn from large datasets generated during the directed evolution process. Engineered proteins are then introduced into plants to enhance crop yields and climate resilience.
-
Carlos Jose Rodriguez Santiago
Ph.D. Student in Chemical Engineering, admitted Autumn 2022
BioCarlos Rodriguez Santiago is a Chemical Engineering PhD candidate working in the lab of Dr. Judith Shizuru to develop protein therapeutics that will facilitate hematopoietic stem cell transplantation without the need for chemotherapy or radiation. His PhD thesis work is at the intersection of immunology, oncology, and protein engineering. Carlos is also a Sarafan CheM-H Lipshultz Graduate Fellow participating in the Chemistry/Biology Interface (CBI) Predoctoral training program which aims to cultivate interactions and thinking across disciplinary lines to enable innovations that improve human health.
Prior to his PhD work, Carlos helped found the Protein Engineering Knowledge Center (PEKC) at Stanfords Innovative Medicines Accelerator (IMA). There he collaborated with researchers to discover and engineer antibodies against therapeutically relevant targets. Several antibodies discovered by Carlos have officially been licensed out for further therapeutic development.
