About the Jin Lab

We are studying protein-protein interactions that occur at virus entry into host cells and escape from endosome into cytosol, between cellular adhesion molecules in the immune system, and tumor development. Through this understanding, we are particularly interested in developing therapeutic molecules in passive immunotherapy to treat infectious diseases, drugs that would inhibit aberrant infiltration of immune cells in autoimmunity, and nanoparticles that would detect and kill tumors in the body. We utilize diverse molecular biology, biochemistry, and biophysical tools and develop unique protein engineering platforms implemented by directed evolution and rational design. Directed evolution refers to a process of random mutagenesis into genotype and functional selection of phenotype, and is implemented by a variety of display systems including ribosomal, phage, bacterial, and yeast display systems. Rational design is guided by experts’ structural insight, bioinformatics, and computational algorithms.

Specific research topics in our lab are:

• Developing therapeutic antibodies against integrins, bacterial toxins, and viruses
• Engineering diagnostic and therapeutic nanoparticles toward tumor detection & brain diagnostic nanoparticles
• Modification of AAV capsid as a gene delivery vehicle