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UROP Department/Lab/Center: HST/BE<br>
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Faculty Supervisor: Ram Sasisekharan<br>
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Project Title: Protein Engineering for Emerging Therapeutic and Biological<br>
Applications<br>
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Project Description: The aim of this research is to develop an in-house protein<br>
engineering protocol for the high-throughput construction and testing of novel<br>
biomolecules that are being designed for therapeutic applications ranging from<br>
infectious diseases to cancer (see lab website for recent publications --<br>
<a href="http://web.mit.edu/tox/sasisekharan/publications/pubs2009.html" target="_blank">http://web.mit.edu/tox/sasisekharan/publications/pubs2009.html</a>).<br>
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Prerequisites: The UROP is ideal for advanced Course 7/Course 20/Course 9/Course<br>
10/Course 5/HST majors with substantial prior experience in experimental protein<br>
engineering techniques, specifically, (a.) high-throughput protein expression<br>
using bacterial or mammalian systems, (b.) purification, and (c.) binding<br>
assays for quantitative analysis of biomolecular interactions. Experience with<br>
these techniques may have been gained through a combination of hands-on wet lab<br>
work and previous UROPs. Additionally, students interested in the following<br>
applications are particularly encouraged to apply for this position -- antibody<br>
engineering, immunotherapeutics, protein library design, site-directed<br>
mutagenesis, circular dichroism (CD) spectral analysis, nuclear magnetic<br>
resonance (NMR) or crystallization of proteins, analysis of biomolecular<br>
structure-function relationships, and molecular modeling tools for design-based<br>
engineering.<br>
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Contact: Interested students can e-mail a brief statement of interest with<br>
enclosed resume/CV to Venkat Soundararajan (<a href="mailto:venk@mit.edu">venk@mit.edu</a>) with a copy to Ram<br>
Sasisekharan (<a href="mailto:rams@mit.edu">rams@mit.edu</a>).<br>
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