Innovative Research Talk with Dinler Amaral Antunes
Thursday, March 20, 2025
10:00 am - 11:00 am
Dinler
Amaral
Antunes
will
discuss
the
results
of
his
pilot
project,
“Improving
the
Design
of
Immunotherapies.”
Many patients face significant challenges benefiting from cancer immunotherapies. Current treatments rely on sequence-based HLA-binding algorithms, which are often optimized for majority HLA alleles and do not adequately account for the genetic variation in varied groups. This pilot research study employs innovative structure-based and AI-enhanced methods to more accurately predict peptide-HLA interactions, stability, and immunogenicity. By focusing on designing high-quality altered peptide ligands (APLs) tailored for HLA profiles of patients—and by assessing off-target toxicity risks—we aim to overcome these technical barriers.
About
the
Speaker
Dinler
Amaral
Antunes,
Ph.D.,
is
an
assistant
professor
at
the
University
of
Houston
College
of
Natural
Sciences
and
Mathematics.
He
leads
a
research
group
that
specializes
in
structural
bioinformatics,
utilizing
advanced
computational
techniques
such
as
molecular
modeling
and
docking
to
explore
protein-ligand
interactions
with
biomedical
applications.
By
integrating
structural
bioinformatics
with
high-throughput
molecular
biology
and
proteomics,
Antunes
is
working
to
improve
the
safety
and
efficacy
of
immunotherapies
for
multiple
types
of
cancer.
- Location
- Online
- Cost
- Free