Xin (Alex) Ge

Biologics, including monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) are the fastest growing sector of molecular medicines for fighting against cancers, infections, immune diseases, etc. Although a palette of powerful technologies has been developed in this field, the generation of mAbs that target many biomedically important molecules still presents a daunting challenge. My lab is committed to developing enabling technologies that facilitate biologics discovery, which are important but difficult or even impossible with current methods. Bypassing the limits associated with what nature offers, we apply engineering strategy and streamline a set of in vitro methodologies including synthetic library construction, structure-aided design, functional selection, repertoire deep sequencing. Combinations of these approaches provide a powerful means for discovering and engineering highly potent mAbs of biological activities relevant to disease diagnosis and treatment. Example projects include: (1) Highly selective protease-inhibiting therapeutic mAbs for diabetic neuropathy and snake envenomation, (2) Antibody prodrug designs for efficient transportation across the blood-brain barrier, (3) mAbs as agonists or antagonists to activate or block membrane-bound receptors, (4) Combinatorial antibody libraries in mammalian cells. Many mAbs discovered in our lab have showed significant therapeutic efficacy in mouse models of cancers, stroke, obesity, and neuropathic pains. In addition, our mAbs have been licensed to biotech industry for further development and commercialization.