Prediction of Antibody Affinities
My research aims to predict an antibody's affinity by using its structural features. Although many programs have been developed to predict the affinity of a protein-protein interaction, none have been specifically designed for antibodies. Antibodies rely on a unique binding mode that is significantly different from general protein-protein interfaces -- we hope to harness these features for modelling an antibody's affinity toward its antigen. In sum, the aim is to probe for possible relationships between an antibody's structure and its affinity to an antigen, but ultimately, the idea is to construct a validated model that can guide tomorrow's antibody engineering solutions.