Antibody Engineering

Principal Investigator: Dr. Sibel KALYONCU

Dr. Sibel Kalyoncu Uzunlar received her Ph.D. from the Georgia Institute of Technology and has been working as a research group leader at the Izmir Biomedicine and Genome Center since 2018. Her areas of expertise include antibody engineering, directed evolution, and biopharmaceutical and vaccine production processes. Through both academic and industrial collaborations, she develops advanced biotechnological products for therapeutic and diagnostic purposes. In the projects she leads, she uses microbial and mammalian expression systems to produce next-generation antibody and vaccine candidates. She is currently conducting several projects funded by TÜBİTAK, TUSEB, and COST, and provides scientific consultancy for industry-led R&D efforts. She has been awarded several prestigious honors, including the BAGEP Award and the L'Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science Award.

Research Areas

Antibody Discovery

Antibody Engineering and Design

Recombinant Protein Expression Systems

Biopharmaceutical Development

Recombinant Vaccine Development

Rational Drug Design

Ophthalmologic Biotherapeutics

Antimicrobial Peptides

Structural Biology and Protein Biophysics

Publications 

Kalyoncu, S.*, Sayili, D., Kuyucu, A.Z., Soyturk, H., Gullu, S., Ersayan, B., Tarman, I.O., Avci, M.E., Mert, O., Haskok, U., Tekin, E., Akinturk, H., Orkut, R., Demirtas, A., Tilmensagir, I., Ulker, C., Gungor, B. and Inan, M. (2025), Development of a Recombinant Omicron BA.1 Subunit Vaccine Candidate in Pichia pastoris. Microb. Biotechnol., 18: e70077.

Yuceer, S., Yalcin, H.T., Kalyoncu, S.* (2025) Engineering of antimicrobial peptides by surface display technologies.  Advances in Protein Chemistry and Structural Biology: Academic Press.

Kuyucu, A.Z., Sayili ,D., Orkut, R., Mert, O., Tarman, İ.O., Lulaci, B., Sencer ,A.M., Kurden-Pekmezci, A., Avci, M.E., Kalyoncu, S.*, Inan, M. (2024) Cell line development and bioreactor process optimization for an atezolizumab biosimilar. Biotechnol Appl Biochem. 2024; 1–14.

Arslan, M., Uluçay, T., Kale, S., Kalyoncu, S.* (2023). “Engineering of conserved residues near antibody heavy chain complementary determining region 3 (HCDR3) improves both affinity and stability.” Biochimica et Biophysica Acta (BBA) - Proteins and Proteomics 1871(4).

Kalyoncu, S., et al. (2023). “Process development for an effective COVID-19 vaccine candidate harboring recombinant SARS-CoV-2 delta plus receptor binding domain produced by Pichia pastoris.” Scientific Reports 13: 5224.

Projects / Patents

Development, in silico optimization, production and in vivo/in vitro characterization of therapeutic anti-PD-1 nanobodies
Funding: TUSEB

Original Biotechnological Drug Development for Age-Related Macular Degeneration
Funding: TÜBİTAK TEYDEB

Rational Design of Epinecidin-1 via Yeast Surface Display
Funding: TUSEB

Development of SIMOA-Based Kit for Nrf2 Activity Measurement
Funding: TÜBİTAK COST

PAN-TER: Target-Specific Pan-Cancer Therapies
Funding: TÜBİTAK 1004

Staff

Former Members

Şuğra Yüceer, MSc
Eda Eskier, PhD
Merve Arslan, PhD
Murat Karadağ, PhD
Saniye Gül Kaya, MSc
Dilara İtik, Researcher
Ayşe Argündoğan, MD