Professor Stefan Barth MSc (Bonn) PhD (Bonn) DMSc (Cologne)

Medical Biotechnology & Immunotherapy Research Unit

Selected publications  |  Contact details  |  Group members  |  Collaborations

South African Research Chair in Cancer Biotechnology; Division of Chemical & Systems Biology; Department of Integrative Biomedical Sciences Member; Member and Executive Director, Medical Biotechnology and Immunotherapy Unit; Institute of Infectious Disease and Molecular Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Cape Town.

The major aim of our research is the use of medical biotechnology methods including antibody technologies, protein engineering & expression, to develop and evaluate knowledge-based innovative recombinant immunodiagnostics and therapeutics. The main characteristics of these novel agents are: a) disease-specific activities, b) reduced unspecific side effects, and c) reduced immunogenicity.

Novel methods for selection of antibodies are developed in close collaboration with a) Dr. Mehmet K. Tur, Experimental Pathology and Immunotherapy, Institute for Pathology, University Hospital Giessen and Marburg, Germany, b) Dr Peter Duncan, Afrobodies, South Africa.

Novel fusion proteins will be designed using advanced supercomputing tools to model dynamic interactions of proteins, in close collaboration with Prof. Dr. Paolo Carloni, Institute for Advanced Simulation, Forschungszentrum Jülich, Germany.  Recombinant fusion proteins are mainly expressed in bacterial or mammalian cells and subsequently characterized in experimental settings, both in vitro on cell lines or primary material of patients and in vivo in transgenic/tumor-bearing mouse models.

Selected recent publications:

Thurner L., Hartmann S., Bewarder M., Fadle N., Regitz E., Körbel C., Schormann C., Quiroga N., Kemele M., Klapper W., Rosenwald A., Trümper L., Bohle R.M., Nimmesgern A., Laschke M.W., Barth S., Kubuschock B., Kaddu-Mulindwa D., Hansmann M.L., Pöschel V., Held G., Murawski N., Stilgenbauer S., Neumann F., Preuss K.D., Pfreundschuh M. – Identification of an atypically posttranslational modified autoantigen as the target of B-cell receptors from ABC-type diffuse large B-cell lymphoma. Haematologica: early view (2020), doi: 10.3324/haematol.2019.241653.

Hussain A.F., Kampmeier F., Meinhold-Heerlein I., Barth S. – One step site-specific antibody fragment conjugation using SNAP tag technology. Nature Protocols 14: 3101-3125 (2019), doi: 10.1038/s41596-019-0214-y.

Dhandapani R., Arokiaraj C.M., Taberner F., Raja S., Portulano C., Franciosa F., Maffei M., Hussain A.F., de Castro Reis F., Reymond L., Perlas E., Barth S., Johnsson K., Lechner S.G., Heppenstall P.A. – Control of mechanical pain hypersensitivity in mice through ligand-targeted photoablation of TrkB positive sensory neurons. Nature Commun 9(1): 1640 (2018), doi: 10.1038/s41467-018-04049-3.

Amoury M., Mladenov R., Nachreiner T., Pham A.T., Hristodorov D., Di Fiore S., Helfrich W., Pardo A., Fey G., Thepen T., Kiessling F., Kolberg K., Barth S. - A novel approach for targeted elimination of CSPG4-positive triple negative breast cancer using a MAP-tau based fusion protein. Int J Cancer 139(4): 916-24 (2016). PMID: 27037627, doi: 10.1002/ijc.30119.

Woitok M., Klose D., Niesen J., Richter W., Abbas M., Hussain A., Stein C., Bialon M., Püttmann C., Fischer R., Barth S.*, Kolberg K.* – The efficient elimination of solid tumor cells by EGFR- and Her2-specific scFv-SNAP fusion proteins conjugated to benzylguanine-modified auristatin F. Cancer Letters 381(2): 323-30 (2016). PMID: 27502168, doi: 10.1016/j.canlet.2016.08.003.

Contact details:

Department of Integrative Biomedical Sciences
Wernher & Beit North level 3
Institute of Infectious Disease and Molecular Medicine
Faculty of Health Sciences, UCT
Anzio Road
Observatory 7925
South Africa

Tel: +27 21 406 6938 (office) 
Email: stefan.barth@uct.ac.za

Alternate sites: 
http://www.chemsysbio.uct.ac.za/csb/research/barth
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Stefan_Barth
 

ResearchGate profile

Group members:

Collaborations: