Area 15c Plenary: Outsmarting pathogens with protein engineering: lessons from pertussis, cytomegalovirus and coronavirus.

There is growing interest in development of antibodies to provide instant immunity that protects susceptible individuals against infectious diseases, especially pathogens for which no vaccine is yet available. However, many of these pathogens, especially those that manifest as highly transmissible or latent infections, express complex arrays of virulence proteins and are adept at avoiding the immune system. Some organisms have developed strategies to selectively destroy anti-pathogen antibodies, while others create decoy epitopes that trick the host immune system into generating antibodies that are at best non-protective and, at worst, enhance pathogenesis. Design of pathogen-resistant antibodies can represent novel therapies and in turn guide development of protective vaccines for these complex pathogens. This talk will provide an overview of our progress in engineering antibodies and antigens resistant to specific immune defense mechanisms used by pathogens including B. pertussis, human cytomegalovirus, and SARS-CoV-2.

There is growing interest in development of antibodies to provide instant immunity that protects susceptible individuals against infectious diseases, especially pathogens for which no vaccine is yet available. However, many of these pathogens, especially those that manifest as highly transmissible or latent infections, express complex arrays of virulence proteins and are adept at avoiding the immune system. Some organisms have developed strategies to selectively destroy anti-pathogen antibodies, while others create decoy epitopes that trick the host immune system into generating antibodies that are at best non-protective and, at worst, enhance pathogenesis. Design of pathogen-resistant antibodies can represent novel therapies and in turn guide development of protective vaccines for these complex pathogens. This talk will provide an overview of our progress in engineering antibodies and antigens resistant to specific immune defense mechanisms used by pathogens including B. pertussis, human cytomegalovirus, and SARS-CoV-2.