Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin go to home page university of texas at austin college of engineering U T direct
Jennifer Maynard , PhD
Assistant Professor


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Office: CPE 5.466 Mailing Address:
Phone: 512-471-9188 The University of Texas at Austin
Fax: 512-471-7060 Deptartment of Chemical Engineering
Email: maynard@che.utexas.edu 1 University Station C0400
UT Mail: C0400 Austin, TX 78712-1062

 

Research webpage

Presentation Made to Prospective Graduate Students 2008

Educational Qualifications:
Ph.D., Chemical Engineering, University of Texas at Austin, (2002)
B.A., Human Biology, Stanford University, (1996)

NIH Postdoctoral Fellow, Microbiology & Immunology, Stanford University (2002-2004)

Honors/ Awards:
Packard Fellowship, David and Lucile Packard Foundation (2005)
Dreyfus New Faculty Award (2003)
National Research Service Award, NIH (2002)

Focus:
Biotechnology, applied immunology, applied microbiology

Research:

Building on decades of basic research in the biological sciences, fundamental principles underlying the function of complex biological systems are being elucidated in laboratories throughout the world. Concurrently, this understanding renders biology amenable to engineering approaches – how can scientists control, predict and thus design novel biological systems?

We use genetic engineering and biochemical techniques to address issues in immune system function and dis-function, with a view to correcting or augmenting this function. This work involves design of protein molecules, production in recombinant expression systems, biophysical and biochemical analysis and, ultimately, structural analysis to visualize the molecular basis of activity.

Overall research goals:

  • Control of cellular immunity through manipulation of T cell receptor interactions
  • Define neutralizing epitopes in Bordetella pertussis and use this information to engineer more effective sub-unit vaccines
  • Reverse engineer pathogenic strategies used by bacterial pathogens for biotechnological applications
  • Apply protein engineering approaches to issues in structural biology

Selected Publications

  • Maynard, J ., Myhre, R. and Roy, B. “Microarrays in infection and immunity.” Current Opinion in Chemical Biology, 11 (3) (2007), in press.

  • Maynard, J ., Adams, E. J., Krogsgaard, M., Petersson, K., Liu, C. and Garcia K. C. “High-level bacterial secretion of soluble single-chain a b T Cell Receptors.” Journal of Immunological Methods 306(1-2): 51-67 (2005).

  • Maynard, J. , Petersson, K., Wilson, D. H., Adams, E. J., Blonedelle, S. J., Boulanger, M. J., Wilson, D. B., and Garcia, K. C. “A Paradox of Structural Degeneracy versus Functional Specificity in T Cell Recognition of Class II MHC and Myelin Basic Protein Autoantigen.” Immunity22: 81-96 (2005).

  • Mao, Y., Chen, J., Maynard, J., Zhang, B., and Quiocho, F. “A Novel All Helix Fold of the AP180 Amino-Terminal Domain for Phosphoinositide Binding and Clathrin Assembly in Synaptic Vesicle Endocytosis.” Cell 104: 433-440 (2001).

 

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