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Hello everyone! I'm Esther Odekunle ( @EstOdek) and today I'll be tweeting from @QEPrize to take you on a journey of what being an antibody engineer is all about. Hold on to your seats and get ready! -EO
Now before we begin, I'd like to emphasise that being an engineer is not restricted to people with a traditional degree in engineering. When I announced that I got a job as an antibody engineer I was told that "the title engineer shouldn't be thrown around anyhow"... -EO
Such gatekeeping should be rejected. The definition of an engineer is someone who designs/builds a machine or STRUCTURE. This does not only apply to electrical/mechanical structures. It applies to biological structures such as antibodies! I'll talk more about this in a bit. -EO
But first, let's delve into my background ( @EstOdek). I did a Bachelors in Biochemistry (at Queen Mary University of London) as I was interested in the chemical processes governed by biological structures (e.g. proteins) and their consequent roles in health and disease. -EO
Afterwards I did a PhD on the neurobiology of STARFISH! (although funnily enough I was also offered a PhD position in chemical engineering). Below is a video from my PhD, of a starfish injected with either water or the neuropeptide I was studying. Can you spot the difference? -EO
During my PhD I realised I wanted to use my skills to design therapeutics for different disease targets. So I decided to go into the pharmaceutical industry, initially establishing a semi-automated process for cloning antibodies, then moving on to become an antibody engineer. -EO
Now onto the fun stuff! What do we mean by Antibody Engineering? Well antibodies are proteins produced by our immune cells and are integral to fighting infections and disease. They recognise a certain structure (antigen) on virus/bacteria which they can tag for destruction. -EO
Due to their role in fighting disease, scientists are developing antibodies to use as therapeutics against disease targets. And based on the different antigens and desired mechanisms of action, these therapeutic antibodies need to be carefully designed to be effective. -EO
