Graduate Students Mini Symposium IV - 2026

13:15 h Elyes Gaaloul - AG Höfer

A bacterial nanosyringe delivers monobodies to human cells

Monobodies are small synthetic protein binders engineered to bind and inhibit intracellular oncoproteins with exceptionally high affinity and selectivity. However, their clinical application is hampered by their inability to cross the plasma membrane and the lack of intracellular delivery methods. In this project, we aim at exploiting a bacterial nanosyringe as a targeted drug delivery vehicle to inject therapeutic monobodies and to potently induce cell death in a human chronic myeloid leukemia model cell line. This technology could allow for efficient and targeted delivery of monobodies which could accelerate their implementation as novel anti-cancer therapeutics.

13:45 h Oskari Lehtinen - MPRG Preiner

Prebiotic flavin redox chemistry

Flavins are redox coenzymes known for their ubiquitous role in a variety of crucial metabolic processes. To test the abiotic reduction under hydrothermal conditions, different pHs, native metals, and minerals were tested to triangulate the range of conditions in which flavins function. Our results highlight the importance of the mineral environment’s context, and also the versatility and capabilities of the flavins to operate under multiple different pHs, and how they could have linked the motile part of prebiotic chemical networks’ electron transportation with the immobile environment of a serpentinizing hydrothermal system.