Home | Research | Research Groups | Structural Biochemistry Structural Biochemistry Research We are a new lab, starting in 2025. Our group develops synthetic receptors and protein therapeutics to improve the safety and efficacy of immunotherapies. We combine: Computational protein design to create specific and tunable biosensors and receptors. Synthetic biology approaches to reprogram cellular functions and immune responses. High-throughput screening and functional validation in relevant models. Our interdisciplinary and collaborative approach aims to bridge basic and translational research to address current bottlenecks in immunotherapy. A major challenge for engineered immune cells is their limited ability to target solid tumors without causing on-target, off-tumor toxicity. To reduce this limitation, we develop synthetic receptors and protein therapeutics that respond to key stimuli from the tumor microenvironment, aiming to improve the specificity and efficacy of immunotherapies. In one approach the tumor targeting domain is secreted by the CAR-T cell. The sensor domains (binder 1 & 2) only associate in the presence of a soluble biomarker. Publications Visit the complete publications list on GoogleScholar: https://scholar.google.ch/citations?user=sj7sAboAAAAJ&hl=en Here is a selection of the most important publications from the last few years: Marchand, A., Buckley, S., Schneuing, A., Pacesa, M., Elia, M., Gainza, P., Elizarova, E., Neeser, R.M., Lee, P.-W., Reymond, L., Miao, Y., Scheller, L., Georgeon, S., Schmidt, J., Schwaller, P., Maerkl, S.J., Bronstein, M., Correia, B.E. Targeting protein–ligand neosurfaces with a generalizable deep learning tool. Nature 2025. PMID: 39814890 Scheller, L#., Attianese, G.M.P.G#., Castellanos-Rueda, R., Di Roberto, R.B., Barden, M., Riboulet, M., Shui, S., Cribioli, E., Marchand, A., Georgeon, S., Abken, H., Reddy, S., Correia, B., Irving, M. Equal contribution. 2024. Drug-controlled CAR-T cells through the regulation of cell-cell interactions. Preprint, bioRxiv 2024. PMID: 33919245 Shui S, Scheller L, Correia BE. Protein-based bandpass filters for controlling cellular signaling with chemical inputs. Nature Chemical Biology 2023, 20: 586–593. PMID: 37957273 Shui S#, Buckley S#, Scheller L#, Correia BE. Equal contribution. Rational design of small-molecule responsive protein switches. Review, Protein Science 2023, 32:e4774. PMID: 37656809 Marchand, A., Bonati, L., Shui, S., Scheller, L., Gainza, P., Rosset, S., Georgeon, S., Tang, L., Correia, B.E. Rational Design of Chemically Controlled Antibodies and Protein Therapeutics. ACS Chemical Biology 2023, 18(6):1259–65. PMID: 37252896 Scheller L. Synthetic Receptors for Sensing Soluble Molecules with Mammalian Cells. Book chapter, Methods in Molecular Biology 2021, 2312:15–33. PMID: 34228282 Shui, S., Gainza, P., Scheller, L., Yang, C., Kurumida, Y., Rosset, S., Georgeon, S., Di Roberto, R.B., Castellanos-Rueda, R., Reddy, S.T., Correia, B.E. A rational blueprint for the design of chemically-controlled protein switches. Nature Communications 2021, 12:5754. PMID: 37656809 Krawczyk K, Scheller L, Kim H, Fussenegger M. Rewiring of endogenous signaling pathways to genomic targets for therapeutic cell reprogramming. Nature Communications 2020, 30;11(1):608. PMID: 32001704 Scheller L, Fussenegger M. From synthetic biology to human therapy: engineered mammalian cells. Review, Current Opinion in Biotechnology 2019, 58:108–16. PMID: 30933864 Bojar D, Scheller L, Hamri GCE, Xie M, Fussenegger M. Caffeine-inducible gene switches controlling experimental diabetes. Nature Communications 2018, 9(1):2318. PMID: 29921872 Scheller L, Strittmatter T, Fuchs D, Bojar D, Fussenegger M. Generalized extracellular molecule sensor platform for programming cellular behavior. Nature Chemical Biology 2018, 14(7):723–9. PMID: 29686358 Kojima R, Scheller L, Fussenegger M. Nonimmune cells equipped with T-cell-receptor-like signaling for cancer cell ablation. Nature Chemical Biology 2018, 14(1):42–9. PMID: 29131143 Team & Lab Life Dr. Leo Scheller Head of Research Group | Structural Biochemistry Email: info@lit.eu We are just getting started! Check for open positions and help us build a creative, inclusive, awesome lab to do meaningful work in immunotherapy!
