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The Programmable Biology Group

We develop generative algorithms and experimental protein design platforms 

for genome, proteome, and cell engineering.

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Our Research

Home: Research

Programmable Proteome Editing

We are developing peptide-guided protein therapeutics to target disordered and "undruggable" proteins. To accomplish this goal, we train generative language models, such as SaLT&PepPrPepPrCLIP, and PepMLM, to de novo design peptide binders to any pathogenic protein without needing its structure, and subsequently link these binders to post-translational modification domains to edit the protein. Our current peptide-E3 ubiquitin ligase (uAbs) and peptide-deubiquitinase fusions (duAbs) represent a CRISPR-like approach for targeted protein degradation and stabilization. We are now extending this to multi-objective-guided generation of therapeutic peptides with PepTune and specific targeting of dysregulated isoforms with PTM-Mamba, FusOn-pLM, and moPPIt

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Home: Our Team

Our Team

We program biology to do what we want.

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Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering

Assistant Professor of Computer Science

Assistant Professor of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics

MIT (SB '16, SM '18, PhD '20)

Co-Founder of Gameto, Inc.

Co-Founder of UbiquiTx, Inc.

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Postdoctoral Fellow

PhD (Fudan '20)

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PhD Student

BS (ECJTU '23)

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PhD Student - Duke NUS

BS (UC Davis '20)

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Masters Student

BS (Emory '24)

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PhD Student

BS (Georgia Tech '22)

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PhD Student

BS (UNC '24)

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Incoming PhD Student

BS (Fudan '25)

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Undergraduate

Duke '27

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PhD Student

BS (Duke '23)

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PhD Student

BS (SUNY Binghamton '20)

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Research Associate

MS (Kyoto '25)

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Undergraduate

Duke '27

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Undergraduate

Penn '27

Undergraduate

Princeton '27

Undergraduate

Princeton '29

Our Alumni
 

Masters Students

Undergraduate Students​

Our Updates and Progress

Thomas Wagner, not a scientist or doctor (just a dad to Max), suggested that we can use SaLT&PepPr, PepPrCLIP, and PepMLM, to design peptides to bind and degrade GFAP, the driver of AxD. With the support of Thomas and the EndAxD Foundation, that's exactly what we've been doing. 

Check out our publications here!

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Contact Us!

Feel free to reach out and

learn more about our work!

Center for Advanced Genomic Technologies
Fitzpatrick Center (CIEMAS), Room 2339A
101 Science Drive
Duke University
Durham, NC 27705

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