Publications by Florence Pojer

Artificial Metalloenzymes with Two Catalytic Cofactors for Tandem Abiotic Transformations

Florence Pojer, Xile Hu, Kelvin Ka Ching Lau, Weijin Wang

Artificial metalloenzymes (ArMs) enable the integration of abiotic cofactors within a native protein scaffold, allowing for non-natural catalytic activities. Previous ArMs, however, have primarily relied on single cofactor systems, limiting them to only on ...

Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH2025

Antibody-peptide conjugates deliver covalent inhibitors blocking oncogenic cathepsins

Luc Reymond, Florence Pojer, Albert Santamaria Martinez, Sandrine Madeleine Suzanne Georgeon, Aaron Simone Petruzzella, Bruno Emanuel Ferreira De Sousa Correia, Elisa Oricchio, Natalya Katanayeva, Sarah Wehrle, Kelvin Ka Ching Lau

Cysteine cathepsins are a family of proteases that are relevant therapeutic targets for the treatment of different cancers and other diseases. However, no clinically approved drugs for these proteins exist, as their systemic inhibition can induce deleterio ...

Nature Portfolio2024

Standardized Production of Anti-Desmoglein 3 Antibody AK23 for Translational Pemphigus Vulgaris Research

Florence Pojer, Kelvin Ka Ching Lau

Antibody-mediated receptor activation is successfully used to develop medical treatments. If the activation induces a pathological response, such antibodies are also excellent tools for defining molecular mechanisms of target receptor malfunction and desig ...

2024

Machine learning predictions of MHC-II specificities reveal alternative binding mode of class II epitopes

Julien Racle, David Gfeller, Philippe Guillaume Coune, Florence Pojer, Marta Andreia Da Silva Perez, George Coukos, Kelvin Ka Ching Lau, Amédé Noredine Larabi, Alexandre Harari

CD4+T cells orchestrate the adaptive immune response against pathogens and cancer by recognizing epitopes presented on class II major histocompatibility complex (MHC-II) molecules. The high polymorphism of MHC-II genes represents an important hurdle toward ...

CELL PRESS2023

Broadly potent anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibody shares 93% of epitope with ACE2 and provides full protection in monkeys

Henning Paul-Julius Stahlberg, Didier Trono, Priscilla Turelli, Florence Pojer, Charlène Mireille Raymonde Raclot, Jérémy Campos, Kelvin Ka Ching Lau, Myriam Isabelle Lamrayah, Vanessa Genet, Yoan Désiré Duhoo

Due to the rapid evolution of SARS-CoV-2 to variants with reduced sensitivity to vaccine-induced humoral immunity and the near complete loss of protective efficacy of licensed therapeutic monoclonal antibodies, we isolated a potent, broad-spectrum neutrali ...

2023

Manganese Transfer Hydrogenases Based on the Biotin-Streptavidin Technology

Florence Pojer, Xile Hu, Kelvin Ka Ching Lau, Weijin Wang

Artificial (transfer) hydrogenases have been developed for organic synthesis, but they rely on precious metals. Native hydrogenases use Earth-abundant metals, but these cannot be applied for organic synthesis due, in part, to their substrate specificity. H ...

Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH2023

Cryo-EM structures and binding of mouse and human ACE2 to SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern indicate that mutations enabling immune escape could expand host range

Henning Paul-Julius Stahlberg, Didier Trono, Priscilla Turelli, Florence Pojer, Sergey Nazarov, Kelvin Ka Ching Lau, Dongchun Ni, Alexander Myasnikov, Emiko Uchikawa

nvestigation of potential hosts of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) is crucial to understanding future risks of spillover and spillback. SARS-CoV-2 has been reported to be transmitted from humans to various animals after req ...

2023

High-affinity peptides developed against calprotectin and their application as synthetic ligands in diagnostic assays

Christian Heinis, Florence Pojer, Lluc Farrera Soler, Kelvin Ka Ching Lau, Cristina Diaz Perlas

A peptide was developed that binds to calprotectin, a marker of major inflammatory disorders, and found to be suited for diagnostic tests. The use of synthetic peptides in assays is of great interest due to their high precision, robustness and low price. ...

Nature Portfolio2023

Patient-derived monoclonal antibody neutralizes SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variants and confers full protection in monkeys

Henning Paul-Julius Stahlberg, Didier Trono, Priscilla Turelli, Florence Pojer, Charlène Mireille Raymonde Raclot, Kelvin Ka Ching Lau, Dongchun Ni

The SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant has very high levels of transmission, is resistant to neutralization by authorized therapeutic human monoclonal antibodies (mAb) and is less sensitive to vaccine-mediated immunity. To provide additional therapies against Omic ...

2022

Structure-based optimization of type III indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase 1 (IDO1) inhibitors

Pierre Vogel, Florence Pojer, Somi Reddy Majjigapu

The haem enzyme indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase 1 (IDO1) catalyses the rate-limiting step in the kynurenine pathway of tryptophan metabolism and plays an essential role in immunity, neuronal function, and ageing. Expression of IDO1 in cancer cells results in t ...

TAYLOR & FRANCIS LTD2022

A Nanoscaffolded Spike-RBD Vaccine Provides Protection against SARS-CoV-2 with Minimal Anti-Scaffold Response

David Hacker, Florence Pojer, Bruno Emanuel Ferreira De Sousa Correia, Kelvin Ka Ching Lau

The response of the adaptive immune system is augmented by multimeric presentation of a specific antigen, resembling viral particles. Several vaccines have been designed based on natural or designed protein scaffolds, which exhibited a potent adaptive immu ...

2021

Palmitoylated acyl protein thioesterase APT2 deforms membranes to extract substrate acyl chains

Françoise Gisou van der Goot Grunberg, Laurence Gouzi Abrami, Patrick Alain Sandoz, Florence Pojer, Matteo Dal Peraro, Sylvia Ho, Martina Audagnotto, Giulia Fonti, Maria Josefina Marcaida Lopez, Muhammad Umair Anwar, Francisco De Magalhães Sarmento R De Mesquita

Acyl protein thioesterase APT2 interacts with membranes via its charged beta-tongue, becomes palmitoylated by ZDHHC3/7 and deforms the bilayer to extract substrate acyl chains. APT2 deacylation leads to its membrane release and degradation. ...

NATURE RESEARCH2021

Changes in SARS-CoV-2 Spike versus Nucleoprotein Antibody Responses Impact the Estimates of Infections in Population-Based Seroprevalence Studies

David Hacker, Didier Trono, Florence Pojer, Kelvin Ka Ching Lau

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)-specific antibody responses to the spike (S) protein monomer, S protein native trimeric form, or the nucleocapsid (N) proteins were evaluated in cohorts of individuals with acute infection (n = 9 ...

American Society for Microbiology2021

Azole-Based Indoleamine 2,3-Dioxygenase 1 (IDO1) Inhibitors

Pierre Vogel, Olivier Michielin, Florence Pojer, Somi Reddy Majjigapu, George Coukos

The heme enzyme indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase 1 (IDO1) plays an essential role in immunity, neuronal function, and aging through catalysis of the rate-limiting step in the kynurenine pathway of tryptophan metabolism. Many IDO1 inhibitors with different chemo ...

AMER CHEMICAL SOC2021

A high-throughput cell- and virus-free assay shows reduced neutralization of SARS-CoV-2 variants by COVID-19 convalescent plasma

Didier Trono, Priscilla Turelli, Florence Pojer, Charlène Mireille Raymonde Raclot, Céline Pellaton, Valeria Cagno, Jérémy Campos

The detection of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)-specific antibodies in the serum of an individual indicates previous infection or vaccination. However, it provides limited insight into the protective nature of this immune resp ...

AMER ASSOC ADVANCEMENT SCIENCE2021

A highly potent antibody effective against SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern

Didier Trono, Priscilla Turelli, Davide Demurtas, Florence Pojer, Charlène Mireille Raymonde Raclot, Jérémy Campos, Kelvin Ka Ching Lau

Control of the ongoing SARS-CoV-2 pandemic is endangered by the emergence of viral variants with increased transmission efficiency, resistance to marketed therapeutic antibodies, and reduced sensitivity to vaccine-induced immunity. Here, we screen B cells ...

2021

Btk SH2-kinase interface is critical for allosteric kinase activation and its targeting inhibits B-cell neoplasms

Florence Pojer, Matteo Dal Peraro, Oliver Hantschel, Sandrine Madeleine Suzanne Georgeon, Allan Joaquim Lamontanara, Tim Kükenshöner, Maria Josefina Marcaida Lopez, Daniel Pereira Duarte, Grégory La Sala

Bruton's tyrosine kinase (Btk) is critical for B-cell maturation and activation. Btk loss-of-function mutations cause human X-linked agammaglobulinemia (XLA). In contrast, Btk signaling sustains growth of several B-cell neoplasms which may be treated with ...

Nature Publishing Group2020

Selective inhibition of STAT3 signaling using monobodies targeting the coiled-coil and N-terminal domains

Florence Pojer, Oliver Hantschel, Tim Kükenshöner, Grégory La Sala, Kelvin Ka Ching Lau

The transcription factor STAT3 is frequently activated in human solid and hematological malignancies and remains a challenging therapeutic target with no approved drugs to date. Here, we develop synthetic antibody mimetics, termed monobodies, to interfere ...

Nature Research2020

De novo development of proteolytically resistant therapeutic peptides for oral administration

Christian Heinis, Florence Pojer, Luciano Andres Abriata, Xudong Kong, Kaycie Marie Butler, Vanessa Carle, Jun Moriya

The oral administration of peptide drugs is hampered by their metabolic instability and limited intestinal uptake. Here, we describe a method for the generation of small target-specific peptides (less than 1,600 Da in size) that resist gastrointestinal pro ...

2020

High resolution CryoEM structure of the ring-shaped virulence factor EspB from Mycobacterium tuberculosis

Stewart Cole, Florence Pojer, Jérémie Piton

The EspB protein of Mycobacterium tuberculosis is a 60 kDa virulence factor, implicated in conjugation and exported by the ESX-1 system of which it may also be a component. Previous attempts to obtain high-resolution maps of EspB by cryo-electron microscop ...

2020