Research

Welcome to the Strauch lab

We are using both computational and experimental methodologies to understand, inhibit and re-purpose biological processes on the protein level. Our main focus is on how to diagnose, prevent and treat viral infections with the aim to generate new anti-virals and candidates for vaccination through protein design. For that we develop and use new cutting-edge technologies involving structural design as well as pooled oligo-synthesis and next-generation sequencing. While we are studying viral surface proteins principally to understand how we can target them or provide new immunogens, we also seek to shed light on how protein chemistry is involved in making viruses so successful. Viruses and their surface proteins hold the molecular keys for identifying specific host cells, entering them and re-programming them -- much of what we will need to fight cancer.

What does this mean concretely

For the development and application of our protein design projects, we utilize and develop Protein Design and modeling tools. We originally started with the macromolecular software suite Rosetta. As deep learning-based methods are getting much more successful, we are developing and integrating new software that allows us to address described biological problems (such as RFDiffusion, RoseTTAFold, ProteinMPNN, AlphaFold or OpenFold. We redesign and de novo design proteins for therapeutic, vaccination, and gene delivery purposes.
We are part of the RosettaCommons, an international community of over 500 researchers developing and applying molecular modeling and design methodologies. We meet yearly at RosettaCon twice to discuss the exciting science we can now do with computational design and modeling. Expertise with Rosetta and the new deep learning-based methods originating from the RosettaCommons community is highly demanded in both industry and in academia.
We utilize a variety of experimental techniques to address our objectives mentioned above. With the advent of chip-based DNA synthesis, we can test thousands of sequences and screen them for their functions using next-generation sequencing. We can examine proteins for their new functionalities and generate detailed sequence-function landscapes. We heavily rely on flow cytometry as we are using display technologies (such as yeast display) to evaluate protein and peptide binding, as well as protein folding. We further utilize lentivirus systems to either evaluate viral proteins or modify cell lines as needed. We also use a variety of biochemical assays, such as size exclusion chromatography, circular dichroism, biolayer interferometry, ELISA, and more.

Announcements

RosettaCon 2024 time!
Karen's disulfide paper is out! Congrats!!
Karen's prefusion stabilization paper was declared to be the paper of the month by the International Society for Vaccines! Happy February.