Does it Bind?

The Collier lab works on developing immunologically active biomaterials. A few of us research mucosal vaccines using a peptide platform called Coil29. Mucosal vaccines are gaining more attention due to their potential to tackle distinct bodily mucosae and induce immune responses to prevent and treat infectious diseases and autoimmune conditions such as inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Some benefits over traditional vaccination methods include needle-free delivery and localized action by producing IgA and tissue-resident T cells. Delivery through mucosal membranes, however, has its own challenges. Firstly, materials need to cross a dense layer of mucus before reaching the epithelium and achieving the desired therapeutic goal. Moreover, each mucosal membrane is distinct and presents its own properties, for instance, pH, immune cell type, turnover rate, etc, that call for specific biomaterial properties for successful delivery. 

We are currently developing an asymmetric peptide fiber where one part cleaves the mucus while the other binds to it. This asymmetry is important because a fiber containing only one of two peptide subunits will either attach to mucus too tightly and not reach the epithelium or not attach to epithelial cells tightly enough to elicit an immune response.

My goal for the summer is to research in the literature molecules that bind to mucus efficiently and optimize the assembly of these nanofibers (it’s hard to make them!).