Leo Scheller
@leoscheller.bsky.social
Immunotherapy, CAR-T, Protein Design, Synthetic biology, Cell Signaling.
Head of Research Group | Structural Biochemistry | LIT
Leibniz Institute for Immunotherapy
https://lit.eu/our-scientists/dr-leo-scheller/
Head of Research Group | Structural Biochemistry | LIT
Leibniz Institute for Immunotherapy
https://lit.eu/our-scientists/dr-leo-scheller/
Pinned
Leo Scheller
@leoscheller.bsky.social
· Feb 26
Leibniz Institute for Immunotherapy
The LIT develops innovative therapies for the treatment of cancer, autoimmunity, and chronic inflammation by reprogramming immune cells.
lit.eu
I’m happy to share that I will join the LIT in Regensburg (lit.eu) as a Group Leader in Structural Biochemistry in May. We will combine synthetic biology and protein design to develop synthetic receptors and protein therapeutics to improve immunotherapy. Job openings will be available soon!
Reposted by Leo Scheller
Cool work to design phospho-tyrosine binder by the Baker lab. They show it works but success rate is low (<0.1%) and binders are not super strong (>500nM, likely related to cost of desolvating the phosphate) .
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
October 1, 2025 at 8:42 AM
Cool work to design phospho-tyrosine binder by the Baker lab. They show it works but success rate is low (<0.1%) and binders are not super strong (>500nM, likely related to cost of desolvating the phosphate) .
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by Leo Scheller
A computationally-designed ‘random walker’ protein with tiny feet can walk back and forth across a micrometer-long fiber
share.google/3gzWosAVOeAh...
share.google/3gzWosAVOeAh...
De-novo design of a random protein walker
Molecular machines hold great potential. Design of static monomeric and oligomeric protein structures has advanced tremendously, but few dynamic protein systems have been designed. Here we present the...
share.google
October 4, 2025 at 7:08 PM
A computationally-designed ‘random walker’ protein with tiny feet can walk back and forth across a micrometer-long fiber
share.google/3gzWosAVOeAh...
share.google/3gzWosAVOeAh...
Reposted by Leo Scheller
Nature research paper: One-shot design of functional protein binders with BindCraft
go.nature.com/46bhOAv
go.nature.com/46bhOAv
One-shot design of functional protein binders with BindCraft - Nature
BindCraft, an open-source, automated pipeline for de novo protein binder design with experimental success rates of 10–100%, leverages AlphaFold2 weights to generate binders with nanomolar affinity without the need for high-throughput screening.
go.nature.com
September 1, 2025 at 5:37 PM
Nature research paper: One-shot design of functional protein binders with BindCraft
go.nature.com/46bhOAv
go.nature.com/46bhOAv
Reposted by Leo Scheller
Exciting to see our protein binder design pipeline BindCraft published in its final form in @Nature ! This has been an amazing collaborative effort with Lennart, Christian, @sokrypton.org, Bruno and many other amazing lab members and collaborators.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
August 27, 2025 at 4:14 PM
Exciting to see our protein binder design pipeline BindCraft published in its final form in @Nature ! This has been an amazing collaborative effort with Lennart, Christian, @sokrypton.org, Bruno and many other amazing lab members and collaborators.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by Leo Scheller
I am super excited to announce that I will be starting my lab at the Department of Pharmacology of the University of Zurich in Switzerland next year!
July 25, 2025 at 7:48 AM
I am super excited to announce that I will be starting my lab at the Department of Pharmacology of the University of Zurich in Switzerland next year!
Watch out, one of the best in the field! 😀
I am super excited to announce that I will be starting my lab at the Department of Pharmacology of the University of Zurich in Switzerland next year!
July 26, 2025 at 7:38 AM
Watch out, one of the best in the field! 😀
Reposted by Leo Scheller
We (meaning Aswin and Stan www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...) found this jumbophage protein homologue of PhiKZ_124 that activates Avast5 and we solved a 2.1A cryoEM structure of but we have no idea what it does. Let me know it you got some idea. www.rcsb.org/structure/9RP3
Molecular basis for anti-jumbo phage immunity by AVAST Type 5
Jumbo phages protect their genomes from DNA-sensing bacterial defense systems by enclosing them within vesicles and nucleus-like compartments. Very little is known about defense systems specialized to...
www.biorxiv.org
July 12, 2025 at 3:53 PM
We (meaning Aswin and Stan www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...) found this jumbophage protein homologue of PhiKZ_124 that activates Avast5 and we solved a 2.1A cryoEM structure of but we have no idea what it does. Let me know it you got some idea. www.rcsb.org/structure/9RP3
My highest recommendation! Working with Martin is the ideal entry point into protein design.
July 8, 2025 at 3:41 PM
My highest recommendation! Working with Martin is the ideal entry point into protein design.
Reposted by Leo Scheller
Humanized Caffeine-Inducible Systems for Controlling Cellular Functions https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.06.13.659463v1
June 14, 2025 at 5:04 AM
Humanized Caffeine-Inducible Systems for Controlling Cellular Functions https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.06.13.659463v1
Reposted by Leo Scheller
Caffeine-regulated molecular switches for functional control of CAR T cells in vivo https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.06.13.659487v1
June 14, 2025 at 3:02 AM
Caffeine-regulated molecular switches for functional control of CAR T cells in vivo https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.06.13.659487v1
Reposted by Leo Scheller
Happy to share our first foray into the world of AI-based #ProteinDesign. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Development of AI-designed protein binders for detection and targeting of cancer cell surface proteins
Artificial intelligence (AI)-based protein design opens new avenues for the rapid generation of new research tools and therapeutics, but experimental validation lags behind the computational design th...
www.biorxiv.org
May 18, 2025 at 5:06 PM
Happy to share our first foray into the world of AI-based #ProteinDesign. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by Leo Scheller
THIS IS HUGE! TWO Phase I HIV vaccine clinical trials have demonstrated that a stepwise mRNA-based vaccination strategy can SUCCESSFULLY activate AND advance immune responses toward producing broadly neutralizing antibodies (bnAbs), a CRITICAL milestone in HIV prevention. Let’s talk about that! 🧪🧵⬇️
May 16, 2025 at 4:00 PM
THIS IS HUGE! TWO Phase I HIV vaccine clinical trials have demonstrated that a stepwise mRNA-based vaccination strategy can SUCCESSFULLY activate AND advance immune responses toward producing broadly neutralizing antibodies (bnAbs), a CRITICAL milestone in HIV prevention. Let’s talk about that! 🧪🧵⬇️
Reposted by Leo Scheller
"Adapting ProteinMPNN for antibody design without retraining"
Our several-years-old fix to ProteinMPNN's tendency to make weird antibody CDR sequences is finally preprinted
Our several-years-old fix to ProteinMPNN's tendency to make weird antibody CDR sequences is finally preprinted
Adapting ProteinMPNN for antibody design without retraining
The neural network ProteinMPNN designs protein sequences capable of folding into predefined tertiary structures and quaternary assemblies. It has become widely used due to its high success rates when ...
www.biorxiv.org
May 15, 2025 at 4:30 PM
"Adapting ProteinMPNN for antibody design without retraining"
Our several-years-old fix to ProteinMPNN's tendency to make weird antibody CDR sequences is finally preprinted
Our several-years-old fix to ProteinMPNN's tendency to make weird antibody CDR sequences is finally preprinted
Reposted by Leo Scheller
Hi everyone! I’m a #NewPI just starting my lab and would love to hear your advice on lab management and building the lab culture. Any tips, lessons learned, or resources you’ve found helpful are very welcome! Feel free to reply, message me, or email me at rcastellsg(at)cnio.es
thanks a lot!! 🤗
thanks a lot!! 🤗
a cat is sitting in front of a laptop computer asking for advice
ALT: a cat is sitting in front of a laptop computer asking for advice
media.tenor.com
May 7, 2025 at 10:47 PM
Hi everyone! I’m a #NewPI just starting my lab and would love to hear your advice on lab management and building the lab culture. Any tips, lessons learned, or resources you’ve found helpful are very welcome! Feel free to reply, message me, or email me at rcastellsg(at)cnio.es
thanks a lot!! 🤗
thanks a lot!! 🤗
Reposted by Leo Scheller
Here it is! Bonsai. Now there is really no more excuse for using t-SNE/UMAP. Bonsai not only makes cool pictures of your data. It actually rigorously preserves its structure. No tunable parameters. Incredible work by @dhdegroot.bsky.social.
I'm so excited about this!
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
I'm so excited about this!
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Bonsai: Tree representations for distortion-free visualization and exploratory analysis of single-cell omics data
Single-cell omics methods promise to revolutionize our understanding of gene regulatory processes during cell differentiation, but analysis of such data continues to pose a major challenge. Apart from...
www.biorxiv.org
May 9, 2025 at 10:49 AM
Here it is! Bonsai. Now there is really no more excuse for using t-SNE/UMAP. Bonsai not only makes cool pictures of your data. It actually rigorously preserves its structure. No tunable parameters. Incredible work by @dhdegroot.bsky.social.
I'm so excited about this!
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
I'm so excited about this!
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by Leo Scheller
Reposted by Leo Scheller
If u ever had to depict proteins as schematics in papers, u know the dilemma: how to create a pretty “blob”?
If structure ends up big & central, u’ll render it with PyMol et al, but for a truly schematic depiction u want a biorender-style icon, but for YOUR protein.
Think I’ve finally found a way.
If structure ends up big & central, u’ll render it with PyMol et al, but for a truly schematic depiction u want a biorender-style icon, but for YOUR protein.
Think I’ve finally found a way.
May 3, 2025 at 12:40 PM
If u ever had to depict proteins as schematics in papers, u know the dilemma: how to create a pretty “blob”?
If structure ends up big & central, u’ll render it with PyMol et al, but for a truly schematic depiction u want a biorender-style icon, but for YOUR protein.
Think I’ve finally found a way.
If structure ends up big & central, u’ll render it with PyMol et al, but for a truly schematic depiction u want a biorender-style icon, but for YOUR protein.
Think I’ve finally found a way.
Reposted by Leo Scheller
Programmable protein stabilization with language model-derived peptide guides
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Programmable protein stabilization with language model-derived peptide guides - Nature Communications
Dysregulated protein degradation drives diseases like cancer. Here, authors use protein language models to design target-binding peptides, which are subsequently attached to the catalytic domain of th...
www.nature.com
May 2, 2025 at 1:00 PM
Programmable protein stabilization with language model-derived peptide guides
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by Leo Scheller
You’ve heard of vibe coding—meet vibe protein design. Click, launch, and watch the binders roll in. That’s what we're unveiling with @ariaxbio.bsky.social today.
April 29, 2025 at 9:27 PM
You’ve heard of vibe coding—meet vibe protein design. Click, launch, and watch the binders roll in. That’s what we're unveiling with @ariaxbio.bsky.social today.
Reposted by Leo Scheller
AFESM: a metagenomic guide through the protein structure universe! We clustered 821M structures (AFDB&ESMatlas) into 5.12M groups; revealing biome-specific groups, only 1 new fold even after AlphaFold2 re-prediction & many novel domain combos. 🧵
🌐 afesm.foldseek.com
📄 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
🌐 afesm.foldseek.com
📄 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
April 27, 2025 at 12:13 AM
AFESM: a metagenomic guide through the protein structure universe! We clustered 821M structures (AFDB&ESMatlas) into 5.12M groups; revealing biome-specific groups, only 1 new fold even after AlphaFold2 re-prediction & many novel domain combos. 🧵
🌐 afesm.foldseek.com
📄 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
🌐 afesm.foldseek.com
📄 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by Leo Scheller
Baker lab PyMOL config 👇
this is what we use:
set specular, 0
set ray_shadow, off
set antialias, 2
set ray_trace_mode, 1
set ray_trace_disco_factor, 1
set ray_trace_gain, 0.1
set ambient, 0.4
set direct, 0.45
set cartoon_sampling, 10
set ray_trace_color, black
set reflect, 1
set reflect_power, 0
set specular, 0
set ray_shadow, off
set antialias, 2
set ray_trace_mode, 1
set ray_trace_disco_factor, 1
set ray_trace_gain, 0.1
set ambient, 0.4
set direct, 0.45
set cartoon_sampling, 10
set ray_trace_color, black
set reflect, 1
set reflect_power, 0
April 28, 2025 at 6:56 AM
Baker lab PyMOL config 👇
Reposted by Leo Scheller
Thank you, Lennart! I'm very excited to join the newly founded Carl Zeiss Center for Synthetic Genomics and KIT with your lab nextdoor! Exciting times ahead!
While it is hard to predict ahead of time *what* the actual discoveries will be that we will make together, it is relatively safe to assume *that* they will happen.
Welcome new T-Track Prof. Miha Modic @paraspeckle.bsky.social to @kit.edu Karlsruhe
I am so very excited to have you with us now!
Welcome new T-Track Prof. Miha Modic @paraspeckle.bsky.social to @kit.edu Karlsruhe
I am so very excited to have you with us now!
April 18, 2025 at 7:25 PM
Thank you, Lennart! I'm very excited to join the newly founded Carl Zeiss Center for Synthetic Genomics and KIT with your lab nextdoor! Exciting times ahead!
I’m looking for a BTA and a Postdoc to help set up the Structural Biochemistry group at the Leibniz Institute for Immunotherapy (LIT) in Regensburg 😀.
We apply synthetic biology and protein design to address key challenges in immunotherapy.
lit.eu/work-with-us/
#SynBio #ProteinDesign #Immunotherapy
We apply synthetic biology and protein design to address key challenges in immunotherapy.
lit.eu/work-with-us/
#SynBio #ProteinDesign #Immunotherapy
Work With Us
The LIT welcomes individuals from all life paths and academic backgrounds. If you are passionate about science we could be the perfect home for you.
lit.eu
March 13, 2025 at 2:50 PM
I’m looking for a BTA and a Postdoc to help set up the Structural Biochemistry group at the Leibniz Institute for Immunotherapy (LIT) in Regensburg 😀.
We apply synthetic biology and protein design to address key challenges in immunotherapy.
lit.eu/work-with-us/
#SynBio #ProteinDesign #Immunotherapy
We apply synthetic biology and protein design to address key challenges in immunotherapy.
lit.eu/work-with-us/
#SynBio #ProteinDesign #Immunotherapy
Reposted by Leo Scheller
Job - Alert 🌱
‼️ POSTDOCTORAL SCIENTIST (M/F/D)
Deadline: 2025-04-06
Location: Germany, Regensburg, Bayern
www.academiceurope.com/job/?id=7176
#hiring #Immunotherapy #Postdoc #LIT #syntheticbiology #proteindesign
‼️ POSTDOCTORAL SCIENTIST (M/F/D)
Deadline: 2025-04-06
Location: Germany, Regensburg, Bayern
www.academiceurope.com/job/?id=7176
#hiring #Immunotherapy #Postdoc #LIT #syntheticbiology #proteindesign
Academic Europe - Postdoctoral scientist (m/f/d)
www.academiceurope.com
March 13, 2025 at 7:12 AM
Job - Alert 🌱
‼️ POSTDOCTORAL SCIENTIST (M/F/D)
Deadline: 2025-04-06
Location: Germany, Regensburg, Bayern
www.academiceurope.com/job/?id=7176
#hiring #Immunotherapy #Postdoc #LIT #syntheticbiology #proteindesign
‼️ POSTDOCTORAL SCIENTIST (M/F/D)
Deadline: 2025-04-06
Location: Germany, Regensburg, Bayern
www.academiceurope.com/job/?id=7176
#hiring #Immunotherapy #Postdoc #LIT #syntheticbiology #proteindesign
Reposted by Leo Scheller
new blogpost on protein binder design blog.booleanbiotech.com/protein-bind...
Boolean Biotech
blog.booleanbiotech.com
March 8, 2025 at 4:28 PM
new blogpost on protein binder design blog.booleanbiotech.com/protein-bind...