Back to results

Cornell University

DESIGNING A PLATFORM FOR DEVELOPING NOVEL GLYCAN-BINDING PROTEINS USING YEAST SURFACE DISPLAY

Abstract

dc:description.abstract

Glycans are sugar molecules present ubiquitously in all living organisms. Their abnormal expression in diseases such as cancer, use by pathogens to infect host cells, and roles in the immune system makes them important targets for the design of therapeutics and diagnostics. However, a major limitation in targeting the vast array of glycans has been the lack of reliable reagents. Many existing glycan-binding proteins exhibit broad specificity, low affinity, and are costly to produce. Thus, there is an urgent need for a rapid, high-throughput platform that can produce high-affinity glycan-binding proteins. We discuss the design of one such platform based on the directed evolution of alternative protein scaffold libraries using yeast surface display. A library of the tenth repeat, type III domain of human fibronectin (FN3) was screened against polysialic acid, a glycan found in certain cancers, and enriched using a combination of random mutagenesis, magnetic-activated cell sorting, and fluorescence-activated cell sorting. The population of isolated binders was characterized by yeast surface titrations. We were able to demonstrate the concentration of binders to therapeutically relevant affinities in the low nanomolar range. Future modifications to the platform will build upon this work to further enhance the specificity of binders towards glycans. The success of this platform will allow rapid investigation of multiple protein libraries to produce high-affinity, high specificity glycan-binding reagents for use in applications such as imaging and targeted therapeutics.

Degree

thesis:*
Name thesis:degree_name
M.S., Chemical Engineering
Level thesis:degree_level
Master of Science
Discipline thesis:degree_discipline
Chemical Engineering
Grantor
Cornell University
Year dc:date.issued
2021

Author and committee

dc:creator, dc:contributor.*
Author dc:creator
  • Mangipudi, Abhishek
Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember
  • Paszek, Matthew J.
  • Alabi, Christopher Akinleye

Subjects

dc:subject × 6

Rights

Language dc:language.iso
en

Identifiers

dc:identifier.*
Dc Identifier Other
ProQuest Submission ID: 11244
ProQuest Publication ID: 28650572
OAI identifier oai:identifier
oai:ecommons.cornell.edu:1813/110434

Chain of custody

source
Harvested from
Cornell University
Base URL
ecommons.cornell.edu/server/oai/request
Last updated
2026-07-24
Source record
OAI-PMH GetRecord
citation

Mangipudi, Abhishek. DESIGNING A PLATFORM FOR DEVELOPING NOVEL GLYCAN-BINDING PROTEINS USING YEAST SURFACE DISPLAY. Master of Science thesis, Cornell University, 2021. https://hdl.handle.net/1813/110434