The rational design of artificial membrane-binding proteins for advanced cell therapies

Cell therapies offer new and unique solutions to a range of maladies. However, cell therapies are limited by their ability to reach their target locations, remain there, and survive within unsuitable environments, such as hypoxia. Augmenting cell therapies towards circumventing these limitations is an exciting area of research which this project intents to address. Through engineering supercharged proteins it is possible conjugate them to surfactants via electrostatic interactions. In doing so, they are able to anchor themselves within the outer membrane of cells. While supercharged Myoglobin (anchor protein) offers the function of oxygen storage, it is also possible to conjugate secondary proteins with added function to the anchor protein to confer additional benefits e.g., homing or signalling. One such 'partner protein' is the programmed cell death protein 1 (PD1) which is a common hindrance for cancer treatments. This project intends to tackle some of the limitations of cell therapies through engineering different assemblies of anchor and partner proteins to be tested in vivo as possible cell therapy add-ons.