2026 Yeast Display Technology for Antibody Discovery

A five-day intensive course for hands-on learning of yeast display applications

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About

Led by a team of antibody discovery experts at the Institute for Protein Innovation (IPI), this course combines lectures and laboratory sections to train participants in the core principles of yeast display technology.

  • Date: June 1 – 5, 2026
  • Location: The Maureen Murphy Wilkens Science Center at Emmanuel College and the IPI FACS facility in Boston, MA
  • Tuition: $1200 for academic participants | $2000 for industry participants
  • Application due date: March 30, 2026
  • Director: André Teixeira, Ph.D., Senior Director of IPI Antibody Platform

Highlights:

  • Laboratory sessions on library preparation, antigen biotinylation, magnetic-activated cell sorting (MACS) and fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS)
  • Lectures on principles, applications and methods of yeast display
  • Seminars from invited experts on display technology and AI-enabled protein design
  • Short student presentations to engage scientific discussion and collaboration around participants’ personal research projects
  • Networking sessions to facilitate connections among members of the protein science community
View Class of 2025

Instructors

Andre Teixeira smiling in office.

André A. R. Teixeira, Ph.D.

André leads IPI’s Antibody Platform and has extensive experience in antibody engineering, antibody libraries and display technologies. He has worked and collaborated with dozens of pharmaceutical companies, biotechs and academic groups to generate therapeutic and research antibodies.

Deepash Kothiwal, Ph.D.

Deepash is a Senior Scientist at IPI and leads IPI’s Antibody Discovery group. He has extensive knowledge of display technologies, library creation and yeast genetics, including the impact of cohesion dysfunction on budding yeast.

Swethika Balasankar smiles in the IPI office.

Swethika Balasankar, M.S.

Swethika is a Research Associate with IPI’s Antibody Discovery group. She has experience in phage and yeast display and has completed more than one hundred successful antibody discovery campaigns down to single-digit nanomolar affinities.

Robert May smiles in the IPI office.

Robert May

Robert is a Research Associate with IPI’s Antibody Discovery group. He has a background in microbial ecology and gene expression, and now conducts positive and negative screens on IPI’s yeast display library to discover high-affinity antibodies.

Fabbiha Hossain

Fabbiha is a Research Associate with IPI’s Antigen Production group. She has worked in cell culture development, upstream drug discovery and plant genetics, and uses recombinant technologies to express and produce high-quality target proteins at IPI.

Andre Teixeira smiling in office.

André A. R. Teixeira, Ph.D.

André leads IPI’s Antibody Platform and has extensive experience in antibody engineering, antibody libraries and display technologies. He has worked and collaborated with dozens of pharmaceutical companies, biotechs and academic groups to generate therapeutic and research antibodies.

Deepash Kothiwal, Ph.D.

Deepash is a Senior Scientist at IPI and leads IPI’s Antibody Discovery group. He has extensive knowledge of display technologies, library creation and yeast genetics, including the impact of cohesion dysfunction on budding yeast.

Swethika Balasankar smiles in the IPI office.

Swethika Balasankar, M.S.

Swethika is a Research Associate with IPI’s Antibody Discovery group. She has experience in phage and yeast display and has completed more than one hundred successful antibody discovery campaigns down to single-digit nanomolar affinities.

Robert May smiles in the IPI office.

Robert May

Robert is a Research Associate with IPI’s Antibody Discovery group. He has a background in microbial ecology and gene expression, and now conducts positive and negative screens on IPI’s yeast display library to discover high-affinity antibodies.

Fabbiha Hossain

Fabbiha is a Research Associate with IPI’s Antigen Production group. She has worked in cell culture development, upstream drug discovery and plant genetics, and uses recombinant technologies to express and produce high-quality target proteins at IPI.

Guest speakers

All
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Dane Wittrup, Ph.D.
Nabla Bio

Surge Biswas, Ph.D.
AI Proteins

Justin Peruzzi, Ph.D.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Dane Wittrup, Ph.D.

Dr. Dane Wittrup, widely regarded as the inventor of yeast display technology, is the C.P. Dubbs Professor of Chemical Engineering and Biological Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where his group focuses on cancer immunotherapy. He is also the Associate Director for Engineering at the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research at MIT.

Dr. Wittrup holds a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the California Institute of Technology and a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of New Mexico. He is the co-founder of seven biotherapeutic and protein engineering companies, including Adimab, and has been elected as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a Fellow of the American Institute of Biomedical Engineers, and to the National Academy of Engineering.

Nabla Bio

Surge Biswas, Ph.D.

Dr. Surge Biswas is the co-founder and CEO at Nabla Bio, a protein design company developing AI and wet-lab technologies for drug discovery. 

Dr. Biswas created the first protein language model as a graduate student in George Church’s lab at Harvard, where he earned his Ph.D. in Bioinformatics and Integrative Genomics. He also holds a MPhil in Plant Sciences from the University of Cambridge and a B.S. in Mathematical Decision Sciences from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

AI Proteins

Justin Peruzzi, Ph.D.

Dr. Justin Peruzzi is the Head of Discovery at AI Proteins, a Boston-based biotech company pioneering a new class of de novo medicines using artificial intelligence. The Discovery team performs high-throughput discovery and functional screening efforts, including yeast display, to rapidly design and engineer miniprotein-based therapeutics. 

Dr. Peruzzi earned his Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from Northwestern University, in the biomembrane engineering lab of Neha Kamat. He also holds a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Virginia.

 

Schedule

Zoom View

How to apply

1
Application

The 2026 application is now closed.

2
Application deadline: March 30, 2026

Complete the online application form. Don't forget to upload your CV/ resume and a letter of support.

3
Acceptance confirmation: April 17, 2026

All applications received by the deadline will be reviewed by the IPI team. Notification of acceptance will be sent to applicants by April 17, 2026.

4
Final payment deadline: May 8, 2026

Course participants will receive payment instructions upon notification of acceptance.

5
First day of course: June 1, 2026

Participants will gather at the Maureen Murphy Wilkins Science Center at Emmanuel College on Monday, June 1, 2026 at 8 a.m.

The course registration is now closed.

Questions?
Email info@proteininnovation.org.

FAQ

The course will be held in-person on June 1- 5, 2026 at the Maureen Murphy Wilkens Science Center, Emmanuel College (400 Fenway, Boston, MA 02115). Teaching will also take place in neighboring lab space at IPI (4 Blackfan Circle, Room 921, Boston, MA 02115). The finalized daily schedule will be provided to participants in advance of the course.

Participants are expected to attend in person and actively participate in all five days of the course. In addition, participants will be required to give a 5-10 minute presentation on their research on how yeast display applications may align with their current and future projects.

Course tuition is $1,200 for participants from academia/nonprofit and $2,000 for participants from industry. Fees will be due upon notification of acceptance. IPI encourages all interested parties to apply; if costs are a concern, please contact info@proteininnovation.org to discuss any financial hardship and your needs.

Housing is not covered by tuition and will be the responsibility of any course participants traveling from out of town. However, IPI has negotiated discounted group rates with several hotels and dormitory housing providers at a variety of price points. Booking details will be provided to participants upon acceptance into the course. Please contact info@proteininnovation.org for more information.

Because this is an advanced technical course, we expect all participants to have some familiarity with standard molecular biology techniques and a basic understanding of methods of immunodetection. No prior experience with yeast display is required.

We expect this course to be most beneficial to postdoctoral fellows, advanced graduate students, faculty/principal investigators, and industry scientists interested in learning how to integrate yeast display methods into their research programs or those who desire to build their skills in protein science.

Coffee/continental breakfast and lunch will be provided on all five days. Once the roster of participants is finalized, we will be in touch with all attendees to understand and accommodate any specific dietary restrictions.

Parking is extremely limited in the Longwood Medical and Academic Area. Course participants are strongly encouraged to make use of public transportation or ride-sharing apps for travel to and from the course location. Emmanuel College and IPI are within walking distance from the MBTA Green Line, several bus stops and the Commuter Rail. 

There is parking available in the new research building in the Boston Children’s Hospital and the Museum of Fine Arts.

The course will start at 8 a.m. ET and end no later than 6 p.m. ET each day, with an optional networking event extending until 7 p.m. on Thursday, June 4. Participants are required to attend all five days of the course.

Students should come prepared to present a brief overview of their current work and how to potentially integrate yeast display methods to enhance their research. Presentations will be no longer than 5-7 minutes and will be followed by a short discussion section. Upon acceptance into the course, more detailed guidance will be provided.

Organizers & sponsors

Organizers:

Course content team: André Teixeira, Deepash Kothiwal and Swethika Balasankar
Scientific team: Haisun Zhu, Anita Ghosh, Robert May, Fabbiha Hossain, Leo Fletcher and Radhika Das
Communications and Education team: Trisha Gura, Emily McMains, Caitlin Faulds and Sabrina Liu

Sponsors:

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Questions? 

Email info@proteininnovation.org.

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