Symmetric antibodies for symmetric epitopes: development and validation of the Symbody platform.

The majority of natural proteins, including pharmaceutical and diagnostic relevant epitopes, occur as symmetric oligomers.Antibody and antibodylike proteins however are asymmetric and therefore cannot interact symmetrically.We have recently designed a novel non-natural protein with a symmetrical backbone architecture named Symbody.The proteins contain modular modifiable loops and are extremely stable against degradation, easy and cheap to produce to high yield and purity.They could therefore be used as an antibody like protein which interact with symmetric epitopes, thereby enhancing the affinity trough avidity.The goal of this project is the develop a platform in which the Symbody's can be engineered via display and directed evolution for any given target, delivering a proof of concept against against a disease target.Furthermore we want the evaluate the biocompatibility of the Symbody's protein for clinical or diagnostic usage. The validated platform together with the proof of concept results will then be used to attract investors and found a spin-off biotech company.

Keywords:biopharmaceuticals, computational protein design, protein evolution platform, biocompatibility, symmetric epitopes

Disciplines:Proteins, Molecular evolution, Applied immunology