Alex J. Vecchio

This study maps the biophysical interaction network of ZO-1 with tight junction transmembrane proteins, revealing how they couple intracellular and extracellular signaling through binding mechanisms and phase separation.

The paper develops a synthetic antibody fragment that binds to 10 claudin subtypes, opening tight junctions and modulating paracellular permeability.

This study presents cryo-EM structures of Clostridium perfringens enterotoxin bound to claudin-4, revealing its pore assembly mechanism and potential therapeutic strategies.

Hallucinating binders by backpropagating through AlphaFold2 weights gave, across 12 targets, binders in 10-100% of the designs tested per target, mostly at nanomolar affinity.

This study designs soluble analogues of integral membrane proteins using deep learning, achieving high thermal stability and functional accuracy.