When it comes to developing a protein cage-based therapeutic vaccine, Rose Fields, a senior majoring in biochemistry, works in uncharted and high-impact territory.
Fields became involved in this particular project through her previous work at the Institute for Protein Design where she started her research career during her freshman year.
Fields described her research as being at the intersection of emerging technologies in protein cages and neoantigens which Fields explained are tumor-specific peptides that are displayed on the surface of cancerous cells.
Fields packages antigens and peptides into protein cages which then target the proteins that have been mutated from their forms in healthy cells. The immune system then learns to recognize and fight against the neoantigens.
