2024 AIChE Annual Meeting

(209a) Elastin Based Materials for Drug Delivery & Immunoengineering

Author

Proteins can provide therapeutic functions simply not possible with small molecule drugs, but their large size and folded structure present critical challenges in terms of delivery, stability and activity. We take advantage of protein size, structure and the ability to interact with other proteins to create therapeutic protein materials via self-assembly routes not available for small molecules. Elastin-like polypeptides (ELPs) are thermoresponsive proteins that phase separate upon warming and can be used to endow therapeutically functional proteins with self-assembly ability. Our lab has engineered two different platforms using ELPs, protein vesicles and protein nanosheets. Both incorporate functional, globular proteins have potential in a number of bio-applications such as drug delivery, biocatalysis, and vaccines. This presentation will cover our work to engineer these materials to be serum stable, present biologically active proteins, and elicit therapeutic functional outcomes.