In our laboratory, we mainly focus on the structural and functional principles of protein-ligand interactions, which are used for the discovery and development of novel drugs. We focus our work on therapeutically relevant ligands, so-called glycosaminoglycans (GAGs), which represent a group of linear, highly charged polysaccharides involved in many (patho)physiological processes such as inflammation, cancer, infections, etc. GAGs are part of the extracellular matrix, which acts as an interface for interactions of tissues with other cells such as immune cells, tumor cells, and microorganisms. These interactions are usually mediated by cytokines and growth factors. These are small signaling proteins that serve as a template for our protein engineering protocols, which are designed to develop novel biopharmaceuticals for the treatment of chronic inflammatory diseases - such as COPD, esophagitis, lupus nephritis and cystic fibrosis - as well as cancer and viral infections such as SARS-CoV-2. To achieve our long-term goals, we collaborate with several other academic institutions and pharmaceutical/biotech companies in various fields (see the list of our collaborators). In addition, we try to turn our research into new therapies ourselves through our own spin-out companies (such as ProtAffin Biotechnologie AG and Antagonis Biotherapeutics GmbH).
Antagonis is a privately held biotech company headquartered in Graz, Austria, developing protein-based glycosaminoglycan antagonists. Glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) are involved in a variety of diseases such as inflammation, fibrinogenesis, wound healing, immuno-oncology & metastasis, blood clotting, myocardial infarction & restenosis, multiple sclerosis & neurodegeneration. These highly charged and linear polysaccharides represent a novel group of therapeutic targets that cannot serve as antigens for the development of conventional biologics such as monoclonal antibodies due to their problematic preparation. Antagonis is therefore using the recognition sites of naturally GAG-binding proteins - such as those of chemokines - and developing them towards increased GAG-binding affinity while maintaining selective ligand recognition. For candidate selection/optimization, a unique collection of human GAG oligosaccharides was generated, which will be used to screen and optimize our GAGbodies. Targeting accuracy and potential target miss effects are tested using the proprietary ELICO technology. In addition, an extensive set of GAG-binding proteins has been collected in our glyaffibase, which serves as the basis for our targeted GAGbody engineering. A patent has recently been granted for the GAGbody technology in Europe and the United States.