Project

Development of a nanobody platform with applications in medicine.

Code
bof/baf/4y/2024/01/125
Duration
01 January 2024 → 31 December 2025
Funding
Regional and community funding: Special Research Fund
Research disciplines
  • Medical and health sciences
    • Proteins
    • Cytoskeleton
Keywords
single chain antibody nanobody photoporation
 
Project description

In this project we plan to further implement our nanobody platform (llama singe domain antibodies) in different fields of research, including cancer, amyloidosis and bacterial infection. Cancer related projects include research into invadopodia -these are tiny 'feet' of a cancer cell, a kind of molecular drill that genrates holes in the underyling basement membrane of a cancer cell. This enables cancer cells to cause lethal metastases. Using nanobodies we will also manipulate macrophages in the tumor micro environment. In a European funded project we intend to identifiy nanobodies that can help image amyloid deposits in patients to allow more personalized medicine in the future. Finally, we aim to control infections caused by the bacterium Chlamydia by also using nanobodies as our weapon of choice, highlighting their multimodal nature. We use innovative technologies such as photoporation.