Medical School
Twin Cities
This Beahr Lab's research focus is the isolation and testing of monoclonal antibodies (mAb), in particular mAbs against small molecules such as opioids. The researchers have isolated several fentanyl- and carfentanil-specific mAb that bind with high affinity, and reduce the physiological effects of their target drugs. When administered to rats, mice, and minipigs, these mAb have been shown to both prevent and reverse opioid toxicity. For several of these mAbs, the group has solved crystal structures of the mAb in complex with fentanyl, and determined the residues critical for binding as well as candidate residues for mutation to potentially enhance binding.sing protein modeling software accessible through MSI, such as Rosetta and PyMOL, the researchers intend to run programs to model stability enhancing and affinity improving mutations to increase efficacy, and investigate cross-reactivity of our proteins to other small molecule targets. Using MSI resources allow the researchers to quickly work through the design, make, test, and analyze cycle to advance their research and develop these potential life-saving proteins into clinical studies.