Biotechnology

Biography

Biography: Valery A. Petrenko

Abstract

The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2018 was awarded for harnessing the power of evolution to improve and create new proteins. One half of the Prize went to Francis Arnold for the directed evolution of enzymes and another half - to George Smith and Gregory Winter for the phage display of peptides and antibodies. The phage-driven molecular evolution includes:  Diversification of phage population using combinatorial chemistry; Affinity selection; and Amplification of phage in bacteria. We constructed landscape phage display libraries—collections of nanofiber materials with diverse organic landscapes on the surface of phage particles—huge resource of versatile construction materials for creation of phage-functionalized biosensors and phage-programmed nanomedicines. Selected through molecular evolution, landscape-phages bind biological threat agents and, as a part of robust and inexpensive molecular recognition interfaces, greatly improve the sensitivity, selectivity, robustness, and longevity of detection devices. In another area of bioengineering, landscape-phage technology facilitated development of targeted nanomedicines. Using high-throughput phage selection methods, we discovered a variety of cancer cell-associated phages and phage proteins demonstrating natural proficiency to self-assemble into drug- and gene-targeting nanovehicles. The application of the “phage-programmed-nanomedicines” concept led to the development of a number of cancer cell-targeting nanodevices, which demonstrate anticancer efficacy in vitro and in vivo experiments. In my talk, I intend to attract attention of chemical scientists and bioengineers seeking to develop functionalized nanomaterials and use them in different areas of bioscience, medicine, and engineering.