Wood Laboratory for Applied Protein Engineering

Wood Laboratory for Applied Protein Engineering

Biotechnology development through protein engineering

About Us

Led by Professor David W. Wood, our work seeks to develop highly useful biotechnologies through engineering proteins for specific applications. So far, these applications include new ways to purify recombinant proteins, bacterial biosensors that incorporate human drug targets, and new capabilities in drug discovery and drug delivery.

  • Learn more about the Applied Protein Engineering Group in the video at the left.
  • To view in full-screen mode, click on the Play button and then on the square in the bottom right of the video.
  • Professor Wood is currently accepting students.

Faculty Bio

David Wood

Research

The Applied Protein Engineering Group's research focus is on biotechnology development through protein engineering. Professor Wood is known for groundbreaking research in self-cleaving affinity tag technology for the purification of recombinant proteins. Current applications include new ways to purify recombinant proteins, bacterial biosensors that incorporate human drug targets, and new capabilities in drug discovery and drug delivery.

Since the mid-1980s, the use of affinity tag technology has been a ubiquitous method for laboratories to purify virtually any arbitrary recombinant protein through a single general and simple method. While dozens of different tags, kits and accessories are now commercially available, this method has not been adopted for large-scale bioprocessing, largely due to the expense of removing the affinity tag after the target protein is purified. 

The group is currently developing new protein elements that effectively make the affinity tags self-cleaving after purification, therefore enabling many new tag-based protein purification methods that address the biotech industry's needs for scale, simplicity and cost control.

Prospective students, postdoctoral researchers, and visiting scholars should reach out to Dr. Wood directly for more information on incoming projects in any of these areas. 

Bioseparations

Biosensing and Drug Discovery

Tiles

mailto:gonzalez-serrano.1@buckeyemail.osu.edu
wood lab graduate student milton sabat gonzalez-serrano
Sabat Gonzalez-Serrano
OSBP doctoral program
mailto:moody.285@buckeyemail.osu.edu
Wood lab graduate student Nathan Moody
Nathan M. Moody
CBE doctoral program
mailto:mayone.1@buckeyemail.osu.edu
Sophia Mayone from the Wood Lab
Sophia Mayone
CBE doctoral program
mailto:nwankwo.15@buckeyemail.osu.edu
Wood Lab graduate student Onyinye Ebubechukwu Nwanko
Nwankwo Ebubechukwu Onyinye
CBE doctoral program
mailto:ghosh.298@buckeyemail.osu.edu
Graduate student Sushmit Ghosh
Sushmit Ghosh
CBE doctoral program

Additional Lab Members and Alumni

Facilities and Equipment

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Lab facilities are located in the CBEC building, which was constructed in 2015 with state-of-the-art features.

Wood Lab has a wide variety of equipment facilitating biopharmaceutical research.  Interested students, visiting scholars and collaborators should contact Professor David Wood at wood.750@osu.edu and visit the Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering homepage.

Industrial and private clients are likewise encouraged to contact Professor David Wood to see how our lab can develop solutions to address your bioprocessing needs.

Tiles

Sushmit analyzing a chromatograph at the AKTA FPLC machine
AKTA fast protein liquid tomography
An AKTA pure and AKTA purifier model allow automation of protein chromatography processes.
Added columns can extensively monitor the purification process and do kinetics experiments.
Student reading bacterial OD on biospectophotometer
Biophotometer
Our Eppendorf Biophotometer facilitates DNA and protein quantitation as well as cell density measurements.
Student using centrifuge
Avanti High Performance Centrifuge (Beckman Coulter)
This unit can harvest up to 6 liters of culture into single-use bags for long-term storage of cell pellets, amoung other uses
DNA gel imager
Gel imaging system
A gel imaging system can capture and print images of DNA and Protein gels
A student working in the biosafety cabinet
BSL2 cell culture room
A student working in a biosafety cabinet with mamalian cell culture
The BSL2 space enables us to express complicated proteins using HEK and CHO cells
Undergraduate students using plate reader to detect transfection efficiency
Multi-mode microplate reader
A BioTek Multi-Mode Microplate Reader enables high- and medium-throughput screening experiments for our biosensors and yeast display projects.

Our Lab in Ohio State News

News from the Wood Laboratory

College invests $1 million in impactful faculty research
Sai Vivek Prabhala receives second travel award to present research
Doctoral student Sai Vivek Prabhala receives travel award to present research
Graduate student Sophia Mayone wins teaching award
Students recognized at Lowrie Awards Banquet
2022 Graduate Research Symposium another resounding success
Department announces student award honorees
Student, alumni win Prevent Blindness and NSF Graduate Research Fellowships

 News from the Wood Laboratory

Tiles

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wkBg81YGYo4
Podcast
"Build Trust, Unlock Tech, and Devise Innovations with University Labs | Lab Insider 07 Q&A" with Dr. David Wood
Podcast hosted by Lab Insider, 2022
https://www.chi-peptalk.com/
Presentation
“New Affinity Methods for Downstream GMP Processing: Custom Resins to Cleavable Tags” (Dr. David Wood, invited speaker)
Cambridge Healthtech Institute, San Diego, CA, 2023
https://acsbiot.org/
Presentation
"Repurposing cation exchange resins as affinity capture chromatography media for tagless recombinant protein purification using a dual column platform approach" (Dr. Sai Vivek Prabala)
ACS-BIOT 2023
https://www.terrapinn.com/conference/festival-of-biologics-usa/index.stm
Presentation
“Generalized Affinity Platforms for Simplified Downstream Processing: Applications in Biosimilars Manufacturing” (Dr. David Wood)
Terrapin, San Diego, CA, 2023

External Commentaries About Our Work

Active Funding

Links and Downloads