Dr. Plotkin is a Professor in the Department of Physics at UBC, affiliated with the Departments of Cell Biology, Genome Sciences and Technology, and Bioinformatics. He is a co-inventor on over 80 patents for the rational design and development of therapeutics for Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), and, more recently, COVID-19. His lab will leverage its expertise in state-of-the-art protein design and statistical mechanics calculations through molecular dynamics methods to computationally generate a suite of antibody candidates predicted to engage target epitopes on viral spike proteins of emergent variants of concern. De novo immunogen design will also be implemented using protein scaffolding approaches to effectively target key regions of emergent variants, including regions leading to optimal neutralization, and conserved regions of viral spike proteins.  

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