Thurber Lab
Chemical Engineering, University of Michigan
Imaging agent design, drug distribution, and peptide engineering
The Thurber lab uses in vivo microscopy and mathematical simulations to develop quantitative and predictive simulations of drug and imaging agent distribution. The core theory is used in multiple applications, including pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic models for cancer therapy and chemoprevention and imaging agent development for screening, diagnosis, intraoperative imaging, and treatment monitoring. To this end, we are exploring a range of potential drug and imaging molecules, from small compounds to peptides, and all the way up to antibodies to better understand their targeting and distribution properties.
News from the Thurber Lab
February 2024
- Congratulations to Dr. Greg Thurber for his contributions to the recent Scientific American article on Antibody Drug Conjugates
November 2023
- Our work on improving intracellular delivery of ADCs targeting carcinoembryonic antigens has been published in Molecular Cancer Therapeutics
August 2023
- Congratulations to Dr. Eshita Khera for being selected as the Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics Highlighted Trainee Author October 2023
July 2023
- Congratulations to Dr. Anna Kopp for their successful thesis defense on “Improving the Design of Antibody Drug Conjugates and Bispecific Agents for Cancer Therapy”
- Congratulations to Dr. Marshall Case for their successful thesis defense on “Multi-parameter optimization of stapled peptides and other proteins”
January 2022
- Congratulations to Dr. Ian Nessler for their successful thesis defense on “Engineering Protein-Drug Conjugates for Solid Tumor Immunotherapy”
- Congratulations to Anna Kopp for winning the 2021 AIChE Division 15 Oral Presentation Award
October 2021
- Congratulations to Prof. Greg Thurber for winning the George R. Pettit Award for Individual Contribution to the Field of Antibody Drug Conjugates at the 2021 World ADC Conference
January 2021
- Congratulations to Dr. Bruna Menezes/Scheuher for their succesful thesis defense on “A New Hybrid Agent-Based Model Approach to Evaluate Antibody-Drug Conjugates in Solid Tumors”
December 2020
- Congratulations to Dr. Eshita Khera for their succesful thesis defense on “Engineering Tumor Distribution of Antibody-Drug Conjugates”
August 2020
- Congratulations to Eshita Khera and coauthors on receiving the Alavi-Mandell Award for the publication “Blocking Glucagon Like Peptide-1 Receptors in the Exocrine Pancreas Improves Specificity for Beta Cells in a Mouse Model of Type 1 Diabetes”
- Eshita Khera presents their work on “Redefining the Rules: Engineering Tumor Distribution of Therapeutics Beyond Rule-of-Five” at the 2020 Distinguished Young Scholars Series (DYSS) hosted by the University of Washington
June 2020
- Congratulations to Dr. Lydia Atangcho for their succesful thesis defense on “Hitting ‘Undruggable’ Targets: Determining the Properties of Cell Penetrant Stabilized Peptide Therapeutics for Intracellular Targets.”
- Congratulations to Dr. Tejas Navaratna for their succesful thesis defense on “Directed evolution of stabilized peptides with bacterial display.”
March 2020
- Congratulations to Anna Kopp for receiving a 2020 NSF GRFP Award for their proposed work with Antibody Drug Conjugates.
- Congratulations to Bruna Menezes for receiving the Willie Hobbs Moore 2020 Achievement Award for their outstanding achievements and leadership role in the Movement of Underrepresented Sisters in Engineering and the Sciences (MUSES) org.
February 2020
- Our work on tissue penetration of PSMA ADCs has been highlighted in Nature Reviews Urology.
January 2020
- Our work on the quantification of in vivo degradation rates for therapeutic proteins has been published in MDPI Pharmaceutics.
- Our work on a hybrid agent-based model to capture ADC and/or antibody delivery and to predict tumor killing has been published in AAPS.
- Congratulations to Ian Nessler, co-authors, and pharmaceutical collaborators on their paper published in Cancer Research.
- Our work on evolving surface-displayed, chemically-stabilized peptides on E. coli has been published in the Journal of American Chemical Society.
- Dr. Thurber accepts an invitation to present at the European Antibody Congress, 2020, Basel, Switzerland.
- Dr. Thurber accepts a keynote speech invitation at PEGS, 2020, Boston.
- Dr. Thurber accepts an invitation to present his group’s work at World ADC Asia, 2020, Tokyo.
- Dr. Thurber is invited to present at the Quantitative Systems Pharmacology conference in Leiden, Netherlands, 2020.
December 2019
- Our preview article on quantifying payload release of antibody-drug conjugates has been published. This accompanies Sorkin et al., detailing a method to visualize intracellular bond cleavage in Cell Chemical Biology.
May 2019
- Congrats to Dr. Thurber for his appointment to Associate Professor with tenure!
- Our work on improving imaging in type 1 diabetes through blocking exocrine pancreas receptors has been published in the Journal of Nuclear Medicine.
- Congrats to Anna and Marshall for passing their Department Candidacy Exams!