B Cell Biology and Engineering

Antibody secreting plasma cells are dedicated protein-producing machines that are responsible for neutralizing viruses and bacteria, but also can cause disease. We study the proteins and genes responsible for differentiation of and/or long-lived survival of antibody-secreting cells.

Historically, gene delivery to B cells has been challenging. We recently developed an efficient method for gene delivery to primary human B cells. One focus of the lab is to leverage this technology to build a cell therapy for protein delivery.

Antibody-secreting B cells exhibit two features that we think can be translated into a long-term treatment. First, these cells can produce protein indefinitely. Second, antibody-secreting B cells produce similar quantities of protein as industrial cell lines.

Our lab is currently focused on (1) identifying optimal conditions for differentiation of engineered human B cells into long-lived antibody-secreting cells, (2) assessing the impact of autophagy on plasma cell survival, and (3) determining the effect that a host immune system will have on engrafted engineered B cells.