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We aim to understand and engineer the protein machinery of living cells for solving complex problems in biology and medicine

Research

Research in the DeLisa Research Group (DLRG) focuses on understanding and controlling the molecular mechanisms underlying protein biogenesis - folding and assembly, membrane translocation and post-translational modifications - in the complex environment of a living cell. We focus on the molecular machines of protein biosynthesis both as a toolbox for the discovery, design and manufacturing of biopharmaceuticals and as targets for reprogramming cellular physiology. One approach in our laboratory is to exploit untapped mechanistic features of existing cellular machinery such as intrinsic protein quality control mechanisms that ensure correct folding and assembly of native and non-native proteins. This approach is helping to illuminate important structure-function relationships for protein machinery and is providing a basis by which the machines themselves can be harnessed for producing novel biotechnological products. A second related approach is to engineer microbial cells with unnatural protein machinery, thereby expanding the repertoire of useful biological and chemical functions far beyond those bestowed by nature. Such engineered cells represent a robust platform for cost-effective biosynthesis of complex therapeutic proteins and vaccines for a range of human diseases.

We are currently focused on the following research themes:

Recent News

More DLRG news here

The complete list of DLRG publications is here

Αlamgir A, Ghosal S, DeLisa MP and Alabi CA

Bioreversible anionic cloaking enables intracellular protein delivery with ionizable lipid nanoparticles

ACS Central Science (in press) (2024) Link

*Featured on supplementary cover

Stark JC, Jaroentomeechai T, Warfel KF, Hershewe JM, DeLisa MP and Jewett MC

Rapid biosynthesis of glycoprotein therapeutics and vaccines from freeze-dried bacterial cell lysates

Nature Protocols 18: 2374-98 (2023) Link

Robinson M-P, Jung J, Lopez-Barbosa N, Chang M, Li M, Jaroentomeechai T, Cox E, Zheng X, Berkmen M and DeLisa MP

Isolation of full-length IgG antibodies from combinatorial libraries expressed in the cytoplasm of Escherichia coli

Nature Communications 14: 3514 (2023) Link

Moeller TD, Shah SB, Lai K, Lopez-Barbosa N, Desai P, Wang W, Zhong Z, Redmond D, Singh A and DeLisa MP

Profiling germinal center-like B cell responses to conjugate vaccines using synthetic immune organoids

ACS Central Science 9: 787-804 (2023) Link

*Featured in ACS Press Room "Testing vaccine candidates quickly with lab-grown mini-organs"

Weyant KB, Oloyede A, Pal S, Liao J, Rivera-De Jesus M [...] Locher C, de la Maza LM, Coleman MA and DeLisa MP

A modular vaccine platform enabled by decoration of bacterial outer membrane vesicles with biotinylated antigens

Nature Communications 14: 464 (2023) Link

*Editor's Highlight - top 50 best papers in “Microbiology and infectious diseases”

Jaroentomeechai T, Kwon YH, Liu Y, Young O [...] Chapla DG, Moremen KW, Jewett MC, Mizrachi D and DeLisa MP

A universal glycoenzyme biosynthesis pipeline that enables efficient cell-free remodeling of glycans

Nature Communications 13: 6325 (2022) Link

*Editor's Highlight - top 50 best papers in “Biotechnology and methods”

Li M, Zheng X, Shanker S, Jaroentomeechai T, Moeller TD, Hulbert S [...] Cox EC, Labonte JW, Gray JJ and DeLisa MP

Shotgun scanning glycomutagenesis: a simple and efficient strategy for constructing and characterizing neoglycoproteins

Proceedings of the National Academies of Sciences U S A 118: e2107440118 (2021) Link

 

Stark JC, Jaroentomeechai T, Moeller TD, Hershewe JM, Warfel KF [...] Jones BD, DeLisa MP and Jewett MC

On-demand biomanufacturing of protective conjugate vaccines

Science Advances 7: eabe9444 (2021) Link

 

Natarajan A, Jaroentomeechai T, Cabrera M, Mohammed J, Cox EC [...] Vadhin S, Varner JD, Azadi P and DeLisa MP

Engineering orthogonal human O-linked glycoprotein biosynthesis in bacteria

Nature Chemical Biology 16: 1062–1070 (2020) Link

 

Kightlinger W, Duncker KE, Ramesh A, Thames AN, Natarajan A, Lin L, Stark JC, Mrksich M, DeLisa MP and Jewett MC

A cell-free biosynthesis platform for modular construction of protein glycosylation pathways

Nature Communications 10: 5404 (2019) Link

Ludwicki MB, Li J, Stephens EA, Roberts RW, Koide S, Hammond PT and DeLisa MP

Broad-spectrum proteome editing with an engineered bacterial ubiquitin ligase mimic

ACS Central Science 5: 852-866 (2019) Link

Meksiriporn B, Ludwicki MB, Stephens, EA [...] Waraho-Zhmayev D, Kummer L, Brandl F, Plückthun A and DeLisa MP

​A survival-selection strategy for engineering synthetic binding proteins that specifically recognize post-translationally phosphorylated proteins

Nature Communications 10: 1830 (2019) Link

Jaroentomeechai T, Stark JC, Natarajan A, Glasscock CJ, Yates LE, Hsu KJ, Mrksich M, Jewett MC and DeLisa MP

Single-pot glycoprotein biosynthesis using a cell-free transcription-translation system enriched with glycosylation machinery

Nature Communications 9: 2686 (2018) Link

 

Kightlinger W, Lin L, Rosztoczy M, Li W, DeLisa MP, Mrksich M and Jewett MC

Design of glycosylation sites by rapid synthesis and analysis of glycosyltransferases

Nature Chemical Biology 14: 627-635 (2018) Link

Stevenson T, Cywes-Bentley C, Moeller TD, Weyant KB, Putnam D, Chang Y-F, Jones BD, Pier GB and DeLisa MP

Immunization with outer membrane vesicles displaying conserved surface polysaccharide antigen elicits broadly antimicrobial antibodies

Proceedings of the National Academies of Sciences U S A 115: E3106-E3115​ (2018) Link

Selected Publications

Team Members

Principal Investigator

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Matt DeLisa

William L. Lewis Professor of Engineering

Director, Cornell Institute of Biotechnology, 2019-

Gastprofesseur, ETH-Zürich, 2010-2011

Postdoctoral Fellow, UT-Austin, 2000-2003

Ph.D. University of Maryland, 2000

M.S. University of Maryland, 1998

B.S. University of Connecticut, 1996

 

Email: md255 at cornell dot edu

To read more about Matt, go here

Postdoctoral research associates

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Ninad Agashe.jpg

Lan Na

Chemistry

Postdoc Rosalind Franklin Institute

Ph.D. UC-Davis, 2020

M.S. Sogang University, 2015

B.S. Sogang University, 2013

Email: TBD at cornell dot edu

Project: TBD

Hyun Gyu Hwang.tiff

Hyun Gyu Hwang

Bioscience and Bioengineering

Ph.D. POSTECH, 2021

B.S. Handong Global University, 2015

 

 

Email: hh745 at cornell dot edu

Project: In vitro prototyping of human O-linked glycosylation pathways 

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Mehman Bunyatov

Chemical Biology and Drug Discovery

Postdoc University of Georgia

Ph.D. Utrecht University, 2021

B.S.  Moscow State University, 2014

Email: mb2758 at cornell dot edu

Project: Chemical biological approaches to glycoconjugate synthesis

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Connor Donahue

Chemistry

Ph.D. University of Maryland, 2023

B.S. St. Mary's College of Maryland, 2016

Email: tcd62 at cornell dot edu

Project: Expanding the repertoire of PTMs in cell-free protein synthesis systems

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Chandra Bandi

Chemical and Biochemical Engineering

Ph.D. Rutgers University, 2021

M.S. Rutgers University, 2016

B.S. IIT-Kharagpur, 2013

Email: cb922 at cornell dot edu

Project: In vitro prototyping of engineered N-llinked glycosylation pathways 

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Keehun Kim

American Heart Association Postdoc Fellow

Molecular, Cellular, Dev Biology & Genetics

Ph.D. University of Minnesota, 2021

B.S. Kyungpook National University, 2013

Email: kk779 at cornell dot edu

Project: Cell-free expression and engineering of transmembrane proteins

Jinjoo Jung

Chemical Biology

Ph.D. Seoul National University, 2019

B.S. Soongsil University, 2012

 

 

Email: jj757 at cornell dot edu

Project: Engineering glycan-binders for high content resolution of glycomes 

Jinjoo%20Jung_edited.jpg

Graduate research assistants

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Weiyao Wang

Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering

B.S. Tulane University, 2018

Email: ww462 at cornell dot edu

Project: Engineering high-affinity antibodies against carbohydrate antigens

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Azmain Alamgir

Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering

Cornell Fleming Scholar

NIH Chemistry-Biology Interface T32 Fellow

B.S. Northwestern University, 2019

Email: ma2283 at cornell dot edu

Project: Intracellular protein delivery via bioconjugation (w/ Chris Alabi)

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Tina Ye

Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering

B.S. UC-Berkeley, 2019

Email: ty369 at cornell dot edu

Project: Engineering therapeutic properties of ubiquibodies

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Connor Monticello

Biomedical Engineering

B.S. University of Colorado, 2019

Email: crm362 at cornell dot edu

Project: Exploring the modularity of ubiquibodies for proteome editing

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Daniel Kwon

Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering

B.S. University of Minnesota, 2017

Email: yk782 at cornell dot edu

Project: Engineering the structure and function of glyco-enzymes

a27d24_33bd84db7ba247538e2a3a4074de3ee2~

Belen Sotomayor

Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering

B.S. Universidad Tecnica Particular de Loja (UTPL), 2017

Email: mbs332 at cornell dot edu

Project: Understanding and engineering single-subunit oligosaccharyltransferases

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Sophia Hulbert

Biochemistry, Molecular and Cell Biology

NIH Immuno-Engineering T32 Fellow

B.S. University of Southern Maine, 2019

B.A. Barnard College, Columbia Univ, 2017

 

Email: swh87 at cornell dot edu

Project: Glycomutagenesis of therapeutic proteins and vaccines

Erik Bidstrup.jpg

Erik Bidstrup

Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering

NIH Chemistry-Biology Interface T32 Fellow

NSF Graduate Research Fellow

B.S. Northwestern University, 2020

 

Email: ejb339 at cornell dot edu

Project: Cell-free glycoprotein synthesis as a route to customized antibodies

Biomedical Engineering

B.S. University of New Mexico, 2020 

Email: aoo35 at cornell dot edu

Project: Immunoengineering bacterial outer membrane vesicles

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Allison Chen

Biomedical Engineering

NSF Graduate Research Fellow

B.S. UCSD, 2020

Email: arc272 at cornell dot edu

Project: Targeted delivery of ubiquibodies using mRNA-LNPs (w/ Chris Alabi)

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Ruoxin Li

Biomedical Engineering

B.S. UCLA, 2021

Email: rl655 at cornell dot edu

Project: Engineering viral vectors for targeted delivery of ubiquibodies (w/ Shaoyi Jiang)

Ayomide Oloyede_edited.jpg

Ayomide Oloyede

Darianna Colina

Biochemistry, Molecular and Cell Biology

NIH Chemistry-Biology Interface T32 Fellow

M.S. Johns Hopkins University, 2020

B.S. Florida Gulf Coast University, 2017

Email: dc676 at cornell dot edu

Project: Engineering peptide guide-driven ubiquibodies for cancer immunotherapy

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Yufan Qin_edited.jpg

Yufan Qin

Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering

M.S.E. University of Michigan, 2021

B.S. UC-Irvine, 2020

Email: yq262 at cornell dot edu

Project: Discovery of biocatalysts for efficient conjugate vaccine biosynthesis

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Deana Moffat

Biomedical Engineering

NIH IMSD T32 Fellow

M.S. Binghamton University, 2022

B.S. Binghamton University, 2021

Email:  dmm375 at cornell dot edu

Project: Engineering glycan-directed cell therapies against solid tumors

Jaymee Palma_edited.jpg

Jaymee Palma

Biochemistry, Molecular and Cell Biology

B.S. KAIST, 2022

Email: jp2325 at cornell dot edu

Project: Glycoengineering vaccines and therapeutics for combatting antimicrobial resistance

Helene Walker_edited_edited.jpg

Helene Walker

Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering

B.S. University of New Mexico, 2022

 

Email: hcw45 at cornell dot edu

Project: Discovery of carbohydrate-specific antibodies from non-immune libraries

Deepali Prasanna_edited.jpg
Harry Zou_edited.jpg

Deepali Venkatesh Prasanna

Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering

M.S. Northwestern University, 2023

B.E. RV College of Engineering, 2020

Email: dv287 at cornell dot edu

Project: Engineering PTM biosynthesis in cell-free protein synthesis systems

Ching-Chih Feng

Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering

B.S. National Taiwan University, 2022

Email: cf534 at cornell dot edu

Project: Engineering multivalent bacterial vesicle vaccines against enteric pathogens

Harry Zou

Biomedical Engineering

B.S. University of Maryland, 2023

Email: hxz2 at cornell dot edu

Project: TBD

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Aarya Darak

Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering

B.S. Institute of Chemical Technology, 2023

Email:  ad2252 at cornell dot edu

Project: TBD

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Undergraduate research assistants

Gaurvi Awasthi

Biology and Society

(2023-Present)

 

Email: ga322 at cornell dot edu

Project: Bacterial glycoengineering

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Isabella Censullo

Biomedical Engineering

(2023-Present)

 

Email: ilc8 at cornell dot edu

Project: Bacterial glycoengineering

Isabella Censullo_edited.jpg
Neha Chopade-photo_edited.jpg

Neha Chopade

Biomedical Engineering

(2023-Present)

 

Email: nc457 @ cornell dot edu

Project: Peptide-guided ubiquibodies for targeted protein degradation 

Carla Hu

Human Biology, Health and Society

(2023-Present)

 

Email: ch652 at cornell dot edu

Project: Targeted protein degradation

Carla Hu_edited.jpg

Julia Vizza

Chemical Engineering

(2023-Present)

 

Email: jev74 at cornell dot edu

Project: Targeted protein degradation

Julia Vizza.jpeg
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Emily Hansen

Global and Public Health Sciences

(2023-Present)

 

Email: erh68 at cornell dot edu

Project: Bacterial glycoengineering

Marisa Brown-Johnson

Biological Engineering, Global and Public Health Sciences (2023-Present)

 

Email: bas372 at cornell dot edu

Project: Conjugate vaccine engineering via glycomutagenesis

Marisa Brown-Johnson.jpeg

Sofia Patterson-Malendrez

Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering

(2023-Present)

 

Email: sp2229 at cornell dot edu

Project: Engineering anti-glycan antibodies

Sofia Patterson-Malendrez.jpeg

Atid Techanitisawad

Biology

(2023-Present)

 

Email: at668 at cornell dot edu

Project: Cancer immunotherapy via glycosylated outer membrane vesicles

Spoorthi Patil.jpeg

Spoorthi Patil

Biomedical Engineering

(2023-Present)

 

Email: ssp224 at cornell dot edu

Project: Understanding and engineering bacterial glycoenzymes

Atid Techanitisawad.jpeg

Alina Chisti

Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering

(2022-Present)

 

Email: azc7 at cornell dot edu

Project: Cell-free glycoprotein synthesis

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Crhis Cizmeciyan.jpg

Chris Cizmeciyan

Biology/Biological Sciences

(2022-Present)

 

Email: cac487 at cornell dot edu

Project: Cell-free protein synthesis of functional GPCRs

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