Title: Polyvalency: Inhibitors, Cellular Effectors, and Vaccines
Date and Time: Jan 17, 2025 at 1:00pm
Location: CHBE 102
Refreshments will be served at 12:50pm
Abstract
This talk will describe our efforts to interface biomolecules with nanoscale scaffolds for designing potent inhibitors and cellular effectors. The design of polyvalent molecules presenting multiple copies of a specific ligand represents a promising strategy to inhibit pathogens and bacterial toxins. We will first describe the design of polyvalent inhibitors that are orders of magnitude more active than the corresponding monovalent molecules and effective in vivo. We will also describe a thermodynamic analysis to help clarify the theoretical basis for the large enhancements in avidity due to polyvalency. We have used this understanding to guide the structure-based design of potent synthetic polyvalent ligands. We will also discuss other applications of polyvalency ranging from the design of broadly protective influenza and coronavirus vaccines to the regulation of signaling and stem cell fate.
Biography
Ravi Kane is the Garry Betty/ V Foundation Chair and GRA Eminent Scholar in the School of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering at Georgia Tech. He received a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Stanford University in 1993. Also, he received an M.S. in Chemical Engineering Practice and a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from MIT, working with Bob Cohen and Bob Silbey. After postdoctoral research with George Whitesides in the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Harvard University, he joined Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) as an assistant professor in 2001. He was promoted to associate professor in 2006, to full professor in 2007, and to the P.K. Lashmet Professor in 2008. He served as the head of RPI’s Howard P. Isermann Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering before moving to Georgia Tech in 2015. Prof. Kane has graduated 38 Ph.D. students and contributed to over 150 scientific publications.