Receptor Engineering

Rob Meijers, Ph.D.

IPI investigator

Curriculum Vitae
Rob Meijers, PhD

Director of the Antibody Platform, Institute for Protein Innovation

Rob Meijers is a structural biologist with a focus on cell surface receptors involved in neuronal development and immune recognition. He obtained a Ph.D. from the University of Amsterdam in protein X-ray crystallography studying enzyme mechanisms at atomic resolution. He did postdoctoral research at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute with Jia-huai Wang and Ellis Reinherz, working on structural aspects of immune recognition. As a group leader at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory in Germany, he established the Sample Preparation and Characterization facility for protein science, one of the largest biophysical core facilities in Europe. He developed a buffer kit to optimize the purification and storage of proteins, which is commercialized as RUBIC screens by Molecular Dimensions. He also developed a research program to study immune and neuronal receptors using mammalian expression to produce glycoproteins for structural and functional studies. He determined how the guidance cue netrin interacts with its canonical receptor deleted in colorectal cancer (DCC), and recently obtained the first peptide-free Major Histocompatibility Complex (MHC) Class I structures which give fundamental insights into peptide binding and peptide exchange for this crucial class of adaptive immune molecules.

Currently, he is leading the Antibody Platform at IPI, to produce synthetic human IgG1 antibodies for cell surface receptors and their ligands. We are especially interested to generate antibodies for recombinantly produced fragments of cell surface receptors and their ligands, using the innovative yeast display human FAB library developed at IPI. We engage in collaborations with academic investigators that would like to use receptor engineering and synthetic antibody tools to answer fundamental questions in neurobiology and immunology.

Current team

Director of the Antibody Platform

Rob Meijers, Ph.D.
Research Associate

Mina Abdollahi
Research Associate

Zachary Anderson
Scientist

Murali Anuganti
Research Associate

Youssef Atef AbdelAlim
Postdoctoral Fellow

Nirakar Basnet
Research Associate

Filmawit Belay
Senior scientist

Anita Ghosh
Research Associate

Ngan Ho
Senior Research Associate

Nick Hollmer
Lab Assistant

Olivia Jannine
Scientist

Deepash Kothiwal
Principal Scientist

Satyendra Kumar
Senior Scientist

Haiying Li
Lab Manager

Amita Patel
Principal Research Associate

Matt Salotto
Research Associate

Siobhan Shea
Research Associate

Sophia Ulmer
Senior Software Engineer

Mahesh Vangala
Senior Research Associate

Chang Yang
Principal Scientist Team Leader

Haisun Zhu
Principal Scientist

Shaotong Zhu

Director of the Antibody Platform

Rob Meijers, Ph.D.

Rob Meijers, Ph.D., brings to IPI an expertise in deep protein production, having established a user facility for protein preparation and characterization at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) Hamburg Outstation, where he was a group leader. He also studied neuronal receptors, revealing how the axon guidance protein netrin interacts with its receptors. At IPI, Rob is well-positioned to identify and design protein targets, as well as engage the neurobiology community to test IPI protein science tools.

Research Associate

Mina Abdollahi

Mina Abdollahi earned her first master’s degree in inorganic chemistry in Isfahan, Iran and her second in pharmaceutical sciences at Northeastern University in Boston. Before joining IPI’s antibody production team, Mina worked as a pharmacy supervisor at CVS. In her free time, she enjoys woodworking with her husband.

Research Associate

Zachary Anderson

Zachary Anderson, originally from North St. Paul, Minnesota, received his bachelor’s in biology at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Before starting at IPI as a research associate focused on cell display, he worked as a technician in Aveda’s cosmetic research center and Northeastern University’s clinical laboratory. Zach is a self-proclaimed Star Wars superfan who wouldn’t last long without pizza.

Scientist

Murali Anuganti

Murali Anuganti comes to IPI from his postdoc at the University of Nevada, Reno School of Medicine. Before that, he received his Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of Connecticut, Storrs, in 2018, studying the kinetics of enzymatic hydrolysis using a model cellulose film and surface plasmon resonance method. Originally from Telangana, India, Murali says that if he were a car, he would be a Ferrari.

Research Associate

Youssef Atef AbdelAlim

Youssef Atef AbdelAlim joins IPI’s antibody discovery team after completing his bachelor’s degree in bioengineering and biochemistry from Northeastern University in 2022. Before joining IPI, he interned with Ultivue, a biotech focused on imaging immune cells in cancer tissue. He later did clinical research and worked as a patient care associate with the cardiac surgery team at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Youssef is originally from Cairo, Egypt and has a passion for soccer — especially the Premier League team, Arsenal.

Postdoctoral Fellow

Nirakar Basnet

Before joining IPI’s Antibody Production team, Nirakar Basnet worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, using cryo-electron microscopy and cryo-electron tomography to study axon branch development. During his Ph.D. at the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry in Germany, he demonstrated that the protein SSNA1 plays a key role in neuronal development and acts as a mechanism for microtubule branching. Basnet is originally from Kathmandu, Nepal, and can be heard mumbling songs as he works in the lab.

Research Associate

Filmawit Belay

Filmawit Belay earned her bachelor’s degree at Bridgewater State University in Massachusetts. She completed an internship at Boston University in the chemistry REU program, followed by an intership at Biogen in pharmaceutical operations and technology. She cannot live without injera, a type of Tigrigna flatbread.

Senior scientist

Anita Ghosh

Anita Ghosh studied and worked at Purdue University, Johns Hopkins University and Boston University. In her previous roles, she used structural, biochemical and biophysical methods to understand the roles proteins play in disease pathogenesis and drug resistance. Anita is from Kolkata, India and a movie that defined her childhood is Jaws.

Research Associate

Ngan Ho

Ngan Ho comes to IPI from the University of Massachusetts, Boston, where she earned her bachelor’s degree in biochemistry. Her favorite things about IPI are the professional workplace and friendly colleagues. A fun fact: while people think she’s skinny, she actually loves to eat snacks constantly!

Senior Research Associate

Nick Hollmer

Nick Hollmer is from Clifton Park, New York, and recently graduated from Syracuse University with a bachelor’s degree in biology. He spent his undergraduate research experience studying transcriptional targets of drug resistance pathways in yeast. If Nick were a car, he would be a Bugatti and he loves that everyone at IPI is willing to help out if he ever has questions.

Lab Assistant

Olivia Jannine

Olivia Jannine is a lab technician from central Massachusetts. She holds a bachelor’s degree in nutritional science and previously worked at Winchester Hospital as a diet technician. Olivia has a poster of the periodic table of elements in her room and makes the case that sushi is equally fundamental to life.

Scientist

Deepash Kothiwal

Deepash Kothiwal, originally from Kishangarh, India, joins IPI’s Antibody Discovery team from the Buratowski Lab at Harvard Medical School, where he was a postdoctoral fellow studying RNA polymerase II C-terminal domain phosphorylation. He completed his Ph.D. in the Laloraya Lab at the Indian Institute of Science in Bengaluru, India, where he investigated the impact of cohesin dysfunction in cell wall defects in budding yeast. Kothiwal is drawn to the academic heart of IPI — which keeps his inner researcher alive in a fast-paced collaborative work environment.

Principal Scientist

Satyendra Kumar

Satyendra Kumar is a principal scientist in antibody discovery at IPI, where he generates data and computationally analyzes antibody sequences. He completed his Ph.D. in biotechnology and virology at Pune University in India, where studied RNAi-based antiviral drug discovery. After postdoctoral fellowships at the University of Nebraska Medical Center and the University of Illinois at Chicago, he focused on antibody screening, NGS library preparation, and phage and yeast display as part of the protein engineering and antibody technology team at biopharmaceutical company EMD Serono. Satyendra is originally from Ghaziabad, India and enjoys going on outdoor runs when he’s not in the lab.

Senior Scientist

Haiying Li

Haiying Li comes to IPI from Boston Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, where she worked as a research fellow. Previously, she was an assistant professor and director of the Multi-Omics Core Facility at ShanghaiTech University. Haiying is originally from China, completed her Ph.D. at the University of Southern Denmark and has lived in five countries in the past 10 years.

Lab Manager

Amita Patel

Before joining IPI, Amita Patel worked for Foundation Medicine Inc as a molecular technologist III, performing molecular testing to identify cancer care for targeted cancer treatment. She previously worked as a medical technologist and performed laboratory testing at Boston Children’s Hospital. Something fun to know about Amita: if she were a car, she’d be Toyota Rav 4 — strong, capable and ready for an adventure!

Principal Research Associate

Matt Salotto

Matt Salotto worked in antibody discovery at Adimab for five years, managing many antibody campaigns. He focused on platform optimization, testing nanodiscs and whole cell selection for G-protein-coupled receptor targets. Matt ran a poker club at Adimab and his hometown is York, Pennsylvania.

Research Associate

Siobhan Shea

Siobhan Shea comes to IPI’s Protein Research team with a bachelor’s in neuroscience and behavior from Simmons University — just down the road from IPI. She previously worked as a research assistant at the Schepens Eye Research Institute and at Harvard Medical School, studying astrocyte reactivity and glaucomatous optic neuropathy, low-threshold mechanoreceptors and spiral ganglion neuron synapses. Siobhan is originally from Potomac, Maryland and spent much of her youth in show choir and musical theater.

Research Associate

Sophia Ulmer

Sophia Ulmer is from Denver, Colorado, and recently graduated from the University of Colorado, Boulder, with a degree in chemical and biological engineering. While there, she was an undergraduate research assistant in Timothy Whitehead’s lab. One fun fact about Sophia is she drafted an entire fantasy novel while in middle and high school. She hopes to one day publish a work of creative writing.

Senior Software Engineer

Mahesh Vangala

As senior software engineer, Mahesh Vangala is IPI’s data science and bioinformatics expert. He brings more than 12 years of hands-on experience in academic, research and clinical settings working with genomic and clinical data. Vangala is originally from Tadipatri, a small town in southern India, and is a big fan of the movie “Good Will Hunting” — a Boston favorite.

Senior Research Associate

Chang Yang

Chang Yang is from Taiyuan, China, and worked as a research associate at AB Biosciences, focusing on antibody-antigen interactions. Chang loves Disney princess movies and if there is one food she cannot live without, it is fruit.

Principal Scientist Team Leader

Haisun Zhu

Before joining IPI, Haisun Zhu was a principal scientist at Novo Nordisk Research Center in China, where he developed antibodies and biologics to treat hemophilia and diabetes. One antibody he discovered is currently in clinical trials. A fun fact: Haisun once put together a 6,000-piece jigsaw puzzle in three months — it covered his entire living room floor.

Principal Scientist

Shaotong Zhu

Shaotong Zhu comes to IPI from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, where she worked as a postdoc, studying the structure and function of human neurotransmitter receptors. A fun fact about Shaotong: she reads her horoscope every week.

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