Research Areas & Projects

Echinococcus granulosus is an helminth parasite, causing agent of cystic echinococcosis. At SMiles Informatics, we have been working for over 10 years to understand its complex biology, and develop effective vaccines against its infection. We have analyzed its structure, interplay with the host immune system, and identified novel vaccine candidates with promising results. Right now, we are focus on understanding the hydatid cyst fluid proteomic composition to develop novel diagnostic tools for both production animals an humans

The use of recombinant proteins for biotechnological and biomedical applications has been one of the greatest milestones of the twentieth century, allowing for the control, prevention, and treatment of numerous diseases. However, their production is often complex and costly, especially for human biotherapeutics. The idea of being able to reduce biotherapeutics to the minimum region capable of inducing the desired action would bring numerous advantages. The smaller size would reduce production costs, could eliminate the need to include post-translational modifications, limiting the use of complex expression systems; at the same time, it would improve biodistribution, tissue penetration, and could improve stability and half-life. However, so far, there is no reliable strategy that allows this reduction. Our group is developing the first bioinformatic algorithm to design synthetic proteins that mimic the conformation of a protein region (SMP: Synthetic Mimic Proteins). These SMPs are small proteins that can be produced recombinantly in bacteria and applied to various biotechnological and biomedical strategies. The proposed design strategy solves most of the difficulties associated with protein reduction and is adaptable for each application the SMP is designed for. In this sense, we have already successfully carried out a proof of concept of Synthetic Mimic Proteins, where we generated two recombinant SMPs of the tetanus toxin, which shows cross-reactivity against specific antibodies against tetanus toxin. In the present project, we propose the design and evaluation of SMPs for their use in various biotechnological applications, these being evaluated as vaccine and diagnostic candidates, markers for flow cytometry, endotoxin neutralizing proteins, among others. The experimental results obtained, both positive and negative, will allow us to optimize the parameters of our algorithm under development.