Rodrigo Ochoa is a third-year PhD student in Chemical Sciences at the University of Antioquia, Colombia, associated with the Max Planck Tandem Group in Biophysics of Tropical Diseases. His current research involves the development and application of computational methodologies for the design of high-affinity binding peptides to relevant protein targets.

Project summary

The project involved the use of structural bioinformatics and biophysics simulations to design peptides that can be used as potential vaccines for Neglected Tropical Diseases. During his secondment project at EMBL-EBI, Rodrigo performed a structural analysis of the binding promiscuity of MHC class II alleles. A complementary part of his work included the study of some protease interaction profiles of interest to the research group of  Professor Janet Thornton's group, using similar structural and evolutionary tools.

Project outcomes and impact

From his secondment, two potential publications are in preparation. Both are related to the modelling and simulation of peptide-protein complexes to characterise, from a structural perspective, their binding promiscuity. The results are helpful for the design and filter of binders that can be used as therapeutic alternatives or vaccine sub-units. In addition, Rodrigo organised the Latin American Workshop in Structural Bioinformatics of Proteins with the help of CABANA trainers. The event will be held in Medellin at the end of September 2019, with Dr David Armstrong from PDBe and additional speakers from Mexico and Colombia participating in the programme. With this initiative, Rodrigo and collaborators will be contributing to the support of Latin American researchers working in structural bioinformatics.