Key Achievements• Co-led a successful collaboration with Boehringer Ingelheim to develop bispecific antibodies. As a result, Eureka Therapeutics received a multimillion-dollar payment for achieving project milestones and is eligible to receive additional royalties based on product approval.• An innovative scientist who contributed to multiple research projects and is listed as an inventor on several patents. Proposed a novel bispecific format for CAR-T (ARTEMIS platform). The bispecific format allows dual-targeting of surface antigens and addresses the issue of antigen loss as a mechanism of immune escape from CAR T cell therapy. Multiple formats were proposed, several tested, and one looks promising. • An integral member of the CMC team that supported the company's phase 1/2 trials in an effort to develop next-generation CAR T cell therapies. Successfully managed and oversaw product release testing of genetically engineered T cells for Phase I clinical trials

Development of a vaccine for HIV-1. The focus of my doctoral thesis involved developing a structure-based vaccine for HIV-1. The work involved engineering scaffolds to the V1/V2 region of the viral surface protein Env. • Produced novel V1/V2 scaffolds from multiple viral subtypes and tested their antigenicity using standard immunoassays. • Used protein engineering to improve the binding affinity of the scaffolds to the V1/V2-specific broadly neutralizing antibody, PG9. Identified several mutations that had a significant impact on improved binding to PG9. • More importantly, the scaffolds could bind PG9 when expressed in normal cell lines, which is a major improvement because the epitope is glycan-dependent and requires high mannose structures for binding. • Plans to commercially develop the V1/V2 scaffolds are under consideration.