Research descriptions
Research Interests
- Creating a new drug to treat serious blood infections and their antibiotic-resistant biofilms;
- Studying a new immunotherapy for acute myeloid leukemia and pancreatic cancer;
- Developing methods for rapid response development of anti-viral drugs for epidemic viral illness.
The immune system provides constant surveillance to protect against infectious diseases, toxin exposures, and cancers. Part of the immune response is in the form of antibodies that are produced by B-cells. Through highly specific interactions, antibodies can neutralize infectious entities and possibly help combat tumor cells. Many technologies exist to clone human antibodies. The Dessain group's primary interest is in “native” human antibodies, those cloned and expressed in exactly the configuration created by the intact human immune system. Native human antibodies have the potential advantages of high affinity, minimal off-target binding, safety, and effectiveness.
The Dessain group has developed a highly effective method to clone native human antibodies, using only small amounts of blood that can be obtained by a normal blood draw from volunteers. In their method, they isolate B-cells from peripheral blood and convert them to hybrid cells that can be grown in culture, each expressing a single, unique antibody. Similar methods have been developed by others, but the Dessain group's method is very effective because of a unique fusion cell line that allows the high efficiency creation of stable hybrid cells, combined with a unique B-cell selection/expansion step. Thus far, they have produced antibodies reactive with botulinum neurotoxin, which can be used to treat food poisoning or counteract an act of bio-terrorism. They are also creating antibodies that may be potent therapeutics for other infectious diseases, neurological disease and cancer. For more on Dr. Dessain's research view the cover story in the Spring-Summer 2018 edition of Catalyst magazine.
Many laboratories have limited ability to generate their own human antibodies. In order to collaborate in cloning human antibodies with other investigators, the Dessain group has established the LIMR-Center For Human Antibody Technology. The LIMR-CHAT currently has collaborations underway with researchers at the University of Pennsylvania, Thomas Jefferson University, the Fox Chase Cancer Center, Salus University, Temple University, and Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland. They are actively seeking additional academic collaborations. The human monoclonal antibody technology has been licensed to a start-up company, Immunome, Inc., which can provide antibody cloning services on a commercial basis to industrial customers and/or collaborators.
The Dessain lab also developed a novel technology, called On-Cell mAb Screening (OCMS™), that enables rapid identification and isolation of B cells that secrete antibodies with desired characteristics that can be challenging or impossible to obtain by existing methods. OCMS captures and displays antibodies secreted by hybridoma cells. The technology enables fluorescent on-cell screening, making the sought-after monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) easily identifiable. Once identified, the mAbs then can be analyzed for expression level, binding activity and other characteristics. OCMS has been licensed to OCMS Bio, LLC, a biotech startup company that will commercialize and further develop the technology.
