Abstract- Recent advances in protein engineering methods have allowed access to novel therapeutic modalities; and provided capabilities to endow molecules with enhanced properties such as the ability to bind two or more targets simultaneously or to exhibit exquisite specificity.  Here we will describe applications of protein engineering approaches to the development of novel immunotherapies and vaccines for Ebola and Dengue viruses.

Bio- Jon Lai received his B. Sc. (Hons.) in Biochemistry from Queen's University in Canada in 1999. He obtained in Ph. D. in Biophysics and Chemistry from the University of Wisconsin – Madison with Prof. Samuel Gellman in 2004.  He then studied as a Helen Hay Whitney Post-Doctoral Fellow at Harvard Medical School in Biological Chemistry with Prof. Christopher Walsh (2004-2007), and Structural Virology with Prof. Stephen Harrison (2007). He joined the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in 2007, where he is currently Associate Professor of Biochemistry.  He has been the recipient of the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation Young Investigators Award (2009) and the Irma T. Hirschl/Monique Weill-Caulier Career Scientist Award (2015). His group is broadly interested in biomedical applications of protein engineering technologies with a particular focus on viral therapeutics and vaccines