The Institute for Protein Innovation (IPI) has hired Joseph Jardine, Ph.D., as head of antibody discovery.
Jardine has extensive experience in protein engineering and antibody design, particularly in the field of HIV vaccinology. In this position, Jardine will apply his expertise to lead the Institute’s antibody discovery efforts, including the design and construction of a fully-synthetic human antibody library displayed on yeast.
Jardine began his training at the University of Washington under William Schief, Ph.D., and David Baker, Ph.D., focusing on rational protein engineering. In 2011, he moved with the Schief lab to the Department of Immunology & Microbial Science at The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California. His thesis focused on the development of germline-targeting immunogens and the design of pathway immunization strategies to elicit broadly neutralizing antibodies against HIV.
After completing his Ph.D. in 2014, Jardine elected to stay at Scripps for postdoctoral training under Dennis Burton, Ph.D., and to continue his work on HIV vaccine development. As a postdoctoral fellow, he received a Helen Hay Whitney Postdoctoral Research Fellowship and a Young Investigator Award from the Center for HIV/AIDS Vaccine Immunology.
“I am excited to join the Institute for Protein Innovation because it provides an excellent platform for me to continue developing new strategies to engineer proteins and provides significantly more resources than a conventional lab is afforded,” said Jardine. “The primary mission — to produce synthetic antibodies against all extracellular and secreted proteins — will allow me to continue to integrate protein design with biology as I have done in the past. Oftentimes, the most interesting discoveries do not come from an established field, but on the peripheries of several unrelated disciplines. IPI, with its rich environment and proximity to outstanding research institutions like Harvard Medical School and Boston Children’s Hospital, is an ideal place to foster that kind of research.”
About the Institute for Protein Innovation
Founded in 2017 by two academic scientists, the Institute for Protein Innovation (IPI) is designed to foster innovation in protein research and bridge the missing link between genomics and therapeutics. The IPI will advance biomedical research and development in three key ways:
- Stimulate innovative research in protein science by providing critical tools, lead therapeutics, and technologies for academic and industry scientists;
- Create an unparalleled environment for training and teaching the next generation of innovators and entrepreneurs in protein science and drug development; and
- Serve as a cross-institutional and cross-disciplinary organization to forge new ties between academic and industry investigators.
To achieve this mission, the IPI will build and operate an open-source antibody discovery platform, with the long-term goal of developing antibodies targeting the entire human proteome. This resource will enable worldwide advances in research and drug development, driven by the availability of its open-source antibody library.