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Rapid Synthesis of Vaccines for Treating B-Cell Lymphoma
James
Swartz, Chemical Engineering
Ronald Levy, Medicine
Hendrik Veelken, Medicine
Greg Kanter, Medicine
Shoshana
Levy, Medicine
Nathalie Michael-Rydellet, Chemical Engineering
Alexei Voloshin, Chemical Engineering
By combining forces, our groups in the Schools
of Medicine and Engineering are developing exciting
new technology for the rapid and cost-effective
synthesis of patient-specific protein pharmaceuticals.
B cell lymphoma is a cancerous disease in which
a B cell goes out of control and continues to
reproduce itself. B cells normally produce antibodies
and the lymphoma cell is no exception. The rogue
cell produces one specific antibody protein that
remains attached to the cell and provides a unique
target for attack. Fortunately, the scientists
of the Levy lab have learned how to design a vaccine
that recruits the victim’s own immune system
to attack that target and to destroy only the
diseased cells. The challenge is that each patient
needs a new and different vaccine. With conventional
technology that new vaccine may take months to
produce. However, the exciting technique of cell-free
protein synthesis (being developed in the Swartz
lab) potentially allows the production of these
vaccines within a week, and at a much lower cost.
We have now developed methods to efficiently produce
the polypeptides required for these vaccines.
However, we are still challenged to produce them
in the proper and bioactive conformation. We will
describe our expression technology as well as
efforts and early results in accomplishing successful
protein folding. |
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