Aleksandar Antanasijevic : immune responses visualized by electron microscopy

Prof. Aleksandar Antanasijevic

Immune responses visualized by electron microscopy

Abstract
Over the past few decades we have witnessed a revolution in vaccine research catalyzed by the expansion of technologies for design, manufacturing, administration, and evaluation of vaccines. Our new lab at EPFL is developing electron-microscopy-based methods for rapid structural analysis of immune responses induced by vaccine candidates, pathogens and toxins. We use structural and computational biology tools to study how molecular features in antigens shape antibody-mediated immunity. By defining the rules for efficient antibody engagement, we aim to introduce novel engineering principles for vaccine design. In this talk, the work on the development of EM methods and present examples from the research involving viral antigens from human immunodeficiency virus, enteroviruses etc will be discusssed.

About the speaker
Prof. Alexandar Antanasijevic is a biochemist by training, with a strong research background in structural biology and its application to virus and vaccine research. Alexandar completed his PhD at the University of Illinois at Chicago in the lab of Michael Caffrey, where he first got exposed to methods like nuclear magnetic resonance and X-ray crystallography. Following a postdoc in Andrew Ward's lab at the Scripps Research Institute, where he specialized in electron microscopy, he moved to EPFL to start his own research group. In the new lab, the group seeks to establish a multi-component research program to aid structure-guided vaccine design efforts in different fields using electron microscopy as the primary tool.

See more: https://www.epfl.ch/labs/antanasijevi...