Towards novel HIV immunotherapeutics: bispecific antibody paratope mimics
Utilizing our expertise in the design and generation of paratope mimetic peptides (Haußner et al., 2017a; Haußner et al., 2017b), the aim of this project is to generate synthetic bispecific antibody mimics that are able to simultaneously contact different, yet spatially adjacent epitopes on HIV-1 Env (Fig. 1). The project will involve the generation, through solid-phase peptide synthesis, of antibody paratope mimetic peptides, including the purification (preparative HPLC) and analysis (LC-MS) of the synthesized peptides, as well as the fusion of two such peptides through chemo-selective ligation reactions. The interaction of the synthesized peptides with HIV-1 Env proteins (gp120 and gp41) will be analyzed using a range of methods, including SPR spectroscopy, fluorescence polarization and ELISA. This project will be conducted in close collaboration with virology (C5) and bioinformatics (C2) partners.
