Awarded in 2017
Home Department: Immunology
Faculty Advisors: K. Chris Garcia (Molecular & Cellular Physiology, Structural Biology) and Michael Bassik (Genetics)

Research Title: Functional and biophysical investigation of coevolved receptor-ligand interactions using yeast and mammalian surface display

Research Description: Coevolution of receptors and their ligands generates complex interaction networks that make up the language of cellular communication. Despite the existence of many receptor-ligand pairs, high sequence conservation among species suggests that natural protein-protein interactions are only a subset of all possible interfaces. Identification and characterization of non-native interactions could provide a means to selectively activate transferred cell populations via engineered receptor ligand interactions that do not cross-react with wild type signaling molecules. The work proposed here aims to explore non-native interfacing chemistries using yeast display and genome editing in mammalian cells, and will help answer basic and applied questions about protein coevolution. 

WHERE IS HE NOW?

Caleb is a postdoc in Steve Elledge’s lab at HMS.