At the Sgourakis Lab, we develop methods to address the extreme diversity of intracellular antigens, which can be processed and displayed by the highly polymorphic proteins of the human Major Histocompatibility Complex (human leukocyte antigens, HLAs). Our overarching goal is to identify and target robust surface biomarkers for cancer immunotherapy that can be applied to patients from different ethnic groups.
Tumors can display mutated or overexpressed protein fragments on the cell surface via peptide/MHC complexes. To target these tumor-specific pMHC molecules, we are designing receptor-based therapeutics. Additionally, we are developing computational tools that predict and rationalize our experimental outcomes.
We are pursuing protein design efforts focused on the MHC-I molecule to create ligand exchange platforms. This will enable us to screen and select antigenic peptides and to monitor antigen-specific T cells.
Tapasin and TAPBPR are chaperones involved in the selection and optimization of the peptide repertoire for MHC molecules. We are focused on understanding the molecular mechanism behind this process to inform the creation of modified proteins useful for therapeutic development.
Our computational tools
HLA3DB: https://hla3db.research.chop.edu/
RepPred: https://zenodo.org/record/8372876
MAUS: https://maus.research.chop.edu/