Lu Yin

• Leading the preclinical canine study to validate a novel multi-hit vaccine targeting the keystone pathogen responsible for periodontitis • Supporting the CMC group in downstream Group A Streptococcal vaccine development • Contributed to Group A Streptococcal vaccine patent application • Managing a team of Scientist and Associate Scientists

• Championed the effort to redesign, screen, and select a series of periodontitis vaccine candidates that faced challenges ranging from aggregation, instability, to very low protein expression • Spearheaded the large-scale purification processes of periodontitis vaccine targets and eventually produced proteins with high purify that were suitable for large animal studies and generating polyclonal antibodies

• Designed different N-terminal His-tag protein variants with one of the variants selected as the final candidate for downstream pipeline process development • Performed Design of Experiments (DOE) in Xpress Cell Free protein expression system to optimize the titer of a polysaccharide carrier protein with multiple non-natural amino acids • Optimized the tangential flow filtration steps for upstream protein purification processes and significantly shortened the processing time • Facilitated the technical transfer of Group A Strep antigen purification processes from research group to CMC process development group • Optimized TEV protease cleavage conditions for removal of N-terminal His-tag • Initiated and led the effort to select, purchase, and establish operating protocols for a tangential crossflow system that is critical for upstream antigen purification • Ensured timely generation of large quantity of materials for downstream analytic and assay development • Trained new lab member on different FPLC chromatography techniques • Contributed to upstream process development of Group A Streptococcal polysaccharide purification (protease K digestion conditions and chromatography method screening)

Development of antibody-conjugated therapeutic hollow gold nanoparticles

• Developed a novel ion-exchange protein purification method for large scale purification of HIV vaccine • Optimized HIV vaccine formulation with Alum adjuvant • Characterized antibody binding properties of HIV surface protein, gp120 • Patent filing, data analyzing and reporting • Laboratory biosafety and chemical safety training and management

• Developed a cell assay using fluorescent-labeled antibody to evaluate the therapeutic effect of hollow gold nanoparticles • Consulted graduate students in areas of protein pegylation and fluorescent bioassay development for evaluation of therapeutic hollow gold nanoparticles

• Purified and characterized the molecular features of human astrovirus (HAstV) capsid antigen for vaccine development • Developed a fluorescent bioassay to identify the HAstV cell surface receptor in mammalian cells • Trained undergraduate and graduate students in laboratory safety and experimental techniques • Established a BSL-2 cell culture clean room and biosafety stand operating procedures • Contributed to establishment of a protein engineering laboratory and managed daily lab operation (budgeting, biosafety officer, personnel, vendor contacts)

• Used computational structural modeling to design specific angiogenesis inhibitors that interact with tumor cell surface markers • Screened conditions for protein denature/folding/solubility (temperature, pH, detergent, chemical denaturants, pegylation, and salt), and used spectroscopic techniques (absorption, CD, NMR) to monitor protein folding • Used a unique protein refolding method to purify beta-sheet proteins from expressed bacterial inclusion bodies • Patented novel protein therapeutics with robust anti-cancer activities (Patent publication No. WO2012009471) • Physically characterized and determined the secondary and tertiary structures of therapeutic proteins using Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) approach • Performed pre-clinical studies of angiogenesis inhibitors using molecular, cellular, and animal models • Developed purification methods for pre-industrial protein production of protein therapeutics