Severin T. Schneebeli
Title:
Associate Professor
PhD Granting Institution:
Columbia University
Contact:
Email Address: schneebeli@purdue.edu
Office Phone: 765-494-5587
Lab Website Link: https://www.schneebelilab.org/
Primary Training Group:
Biotechnology
Secondary Training Groups:
Chemical Biology, Computational and Systems Biology
Research Areas:
Protein Biotechnology Enabled by Precision Supramolecular Probes and Catalysts
Current Projects:
High-throughput Selection for Pharmaceutical Peptide/Protein Biotechnology: Peptide and protein-based therapeutics can display significant advantages over classical small-molecule drugs, with increased specificity and fewer side effects. At the same time, peptide drugs are more challenging to formulate, deliver, and stabilize than small-molecule drugs. They often display very limited half-lives and are also restricted in their ability to cross biological barriers. To meet this fundamental challenge, our lab develops new high-throughput selection methods to optimize peptide drugs for formulation and delivery, with unique molecular tools derived from our lab’s expertise in organic synthesis, supramolecular recognition, and catalysis. Rational Computer-Aided Design: Our library design for high-throughput selection is guided by accurate simulations of peptides and proteins interacting with membranes to understand the fundamental mechanisms involved in membrane permeation. We believe that a combination of experimental methods with accurate computational models is needed to get to the bottom of the very complex mechanisms involved in membrane permeation / absorption of complex peptide and protein drugs, ultimately leading to better predictive models for these new therapeutic modalities.
Importance of Interdisciplinary Research:
Research in the Schneebeli lab is highly interdisciplinary, as we make use of Supramolecular Chemistry, Organic Synthesis, Single Molecule Biophysics, Computational Modeling, and New Sequencing Methods for Peptides and Proteins to Advance Pharmaceutical Biotechnology.