Biodesign Directory Profile

Bio

RESEARCH THEME

I am interested in using innovative molecular approaches to manipulate the immune system toward better health. My overt goal of developing broadly applicable approaches for making better immunotherapeutics can be used to drive mechanistic insights into how the human immune system works, or fails to work, to protect us from disease.  This purpose to my career coalesced from having engaged early in both academic and industry science and being now immersed in a collaborative, translational research environment.  My group has developed a number of 'omic-scale technologies and innovative concepts; two of these were the foundations of start-up biotechnology companies.  Several of our projects our directed at assembling molecular systems to functionally screen a pathogen genome or proteome for protective antigens or otherwise immunomodulating components.  These vaccine discovery approaches can also be applied for the development of diagnostics and therapeutics.  We additionally recognize that tumor cells can be treated as non-infectious pathogens.  Some of our newer efforts are directed at applying these high throughput molecular methods to the discovery of new cancer diagnostics, therapies, and vaccines.  I have found that this use-driven research consistently provides both unpredictable insights into biology and highly useful tool sets for mechanistic and applied studies.  A recent example of an unintended application of our immunotherapeutic technologies is the development of methods for improving the success of membrane-protein crystallography.

PUBLICATIONS

1)    Refereed Articles

Published:

From Arizona State University:

1)    G. C. Whitlock,  M. Robida, B. M. Judy, O. Qazi, K. A. Brown,  A. Deeraksa, K. Taylor,  C. S. Massey, A. Loskutov, A.Y. Borovkov, K. Brown, J. A. Cano,  A. G. Torres, D. M. Estes, and K. F. Sykes * . Protective antigens against glanders identified by expression library immunization. 2011. Frontiers in Microbiology. 2:1-14.

2)    McGuire, M. J., Johnston, S. A., and Sykes, K.* Novel immune-modulator identified by a rapid, functional screen of the Parapoxvirus genome. 2011. Proteome Science, In Press.

3)    Sykes, K. A binning and sampling approach to molecular vaccine discovery for ASFV. 2011. Journal of Antivirals and Antiretrovirals. 3: 153.

4)    Borovkov, A.*, Loskutov, A., Robida, M., Day, K., Buendia, J. C., Le-Olson, Tien, Patel, H., Brown, K., Hunter, P. and Sykes, K.* High quality gene assembly directly from unpurified mixtures of microarray synthesized oligonucleotides. 2010.  Nucleic Acids Research, doi:10.1093.  PMID: 20693531, JIF: 7.5.

This article is featured on the LC Sciences web page.

5)    Li, Y., Ahluwalia, S., Alexandre, A., Loskutov, A., Wang, C., Gao, D., Poudel, A., Sykes, K. ^#, Kaltenboeck^, B.*^{, #} Novel Chlamydia pneumoniae vaccine candidates confirmed by Th1-enhanced genetic immunization. 2010. Vaccine, 28: 1598-1605. PMID: 19961962, JIF: 3.6.

6)    Borovkov, A., Magee, D. M., Loskutov, A., Buendia, J. C. Selinsky, C., Hunter, P., Zsemlye, J., Lyons, C. R. and Sykes, K.* New classes of orthopox vaccine candidates by functionally screening a synthetic gene library for protective antigens. 2009. Virology, 395: 97-113. PMID: 19800089, JIF: 3.04.

7)    Svarovsky, S.,* Gonzalez-Moa, M., Borovkov, A., and Sykes, K. Self-Assembled Micronanoplexes for Improved Biolistic Delivery of Nucleic Acids. 2009. Molecular Pharmaceutics, 6:1927-1933. PMID: 19754152, JIF: 5.4.

8)    Svarovsky, S., Borovkov, A. Y.*, and Sykes, K.  Cationic Gold Microparticles for Biolistic Delivery of Nucleic Acids. 2008. Biotechniques, 45: 535-540. PMID: 19007338, JIF: 2.55.

9)    Sykes, K.* 2008. Progress in the Development of Genetic Immunization. Expert Review of Vaccines, 7: 1395-1404. PMID: 18980541, cited by 1, JIF: 4.2.

10) Li, D., Borovkov, A., Vaglenov, A., Wang, C., Kim, T., Gao, D., Sykes, K.^#, and Kaltenboeck, B.*^,# 2006. Mouse model of respiratory Chlamydia pneumoniae infection for a genomic screen of subunit vaccine candidates, Vaccine, 24: 2917-2927. PMID: 16434129, cited by 1, JIF: 3.6.

Prior to Arizona State University:

11) Stemke-Hale, K., Kaltenboeck, B., DeGraves, F. J., Sykes, K. F., Huang, J., Bu, C.-H., and Johnston, S. A.* 2005. Screening the whole genome of a pathogen in vivo for individual protective antigens. Vaccine, 23: 3016-3025. PMID: 15811648, cited by 2, JIF: 3.6.

12) McGuire, M.J., Sykes, K.F., Samli, K.N., Timares, L., Barry, M.A., Stemke-Hale, K., Tagliaferri, F., Logan, M., Jansa, K., Takashima, A., Brown, K.C., Johnston, S.A. 2004. A library-selected, Langerhans cell-targeting peptide enhances an immune response. DNA and Cell Biology, 11:742-752. PMID: 15585132, cited by 1, JIF: 2.3.

13) Oyama, T., Sykes, K.F., Samli, K.N., Minna, J.D., Johnston, S.A. & Brown, K.C.* 2003. Isolation of lung tumor specific peptides from a random peptide library: generation of diagnostic and cell-targeting reagents. Cancer Letters, 202(2): 219-230. PMID: 14643452, cited by 7, JIF: 3.74.

14) Locher, C. P.*, Sykes, K. F., Blackbourn, D. J., Johnston, S. A. 2002.  Immune responses in baboons vaccinated with HIV-2 genetic expression libraries. Journal of Medical Primatology 31: 323-9. PMID: 12519210, cited by 1, JIF: 1.1.

15) DeGraves, F. J., Stemke-Hale, K., Huang, J., Johnston, S. A.,  Sykes, K. F., Schlapp, T.,  Hehnen, H.-R., and Kaltenboeck, B*.  2002.  Vaccine identified by in vivo genomic screening enhances fertility in cattle during environmental challenge with Chlamydia, pp. 265-268.  In Chlamydial Infections: Proceedings of the 10th International Symposium on Human Chlamydial Infection.  Antalya, Turkey, June 2002.  J. Schachter, et al. (Ed.), ISBN 0-9664383-1-0.

16) Sykes, K.*, Squires, R., Lewis, M. and Johnston, S. A. 2002.  Evaluation of SIV expression library vaccines in a macaque challenge. Vaccine 20:2382-95. PMID: 12009295, cited by 3, JIF: 3.6.

17) Rombel, I., Sykes, K, Rayner, S. and Johnston, S. A.* 2002. ORF-FINDER: a vector for high throughput gene identification. Gene 282:33-41. PMID: 11814675, cited by 4, JIF: 2.4.

18) Sykes, K.* and Johnston, S. A. 1999. Genetic live vaccines mimic the antigenicity but not pathogenicity of live viruses. DNA and Cell Biology.18:521-532. PMID: 10433551, cited by 3,JIF: 2.3.

19) Sykes, K. and Johnston, S. A. * 1999. Linear Expression Elements: a rapid, in vivo, method to screen for gene functions. Nature Biotechnology. 17: 355-359. PMID: 10207883, cited by 4, JIF: 29.5.

20) Sykes, K.,Gething, M.-J. and Sambrook, J.* 1993. Proline isomerases function during heat shock.  Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci., USA.  90: 5853-5857. PMID: 7685914 , cited by 25, JIF: 9.4.

21) McNew, J., Sykes, K. and Goodman, J. * 1993. Specific cross-linking of the proline isomerase cyclophilin to a non-proline containing peptide. Mol. Biol. Cell. 4: 223-232. PMID: 8443418, cited by 6, JIF: 6.1.

22) Petranka, J., Fleenor, D., Sykes, K., Kaufman, R. and Rosse, W.* 1992. Structure of the CD59-encoding gene: Further evidence of a relationship to murine lymphocyte antigen Ly-6 protein. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci., USA. 89: 7876-7879. PMID: 1381503, cited by 6, JIF: 9.4.

23) Sykes, K. and Kaufman, R.* 1990. A naturally occurring gamma globin gene mutation enhances Sp1 binding activity. Mol. Cell. Biol. 10: 95-102. PMID: 1688466, Cited by 9, JIF: 6.1.

              In preparation:

1)    Le-Olson, T., Loskutov, A., Patel, H., Craciunescu, F., Robida, M., Borovkov, A., and Sykes, K.* High yield, high purity production of the Francisella tularensis SCHUS4 proteome for suspension assays. For Proteomics.

2)    Sykes, K., * Takamatsu, H., Jancovich, J. Robida, M. Taylor, G., King, K., Chapman, D., Jacobs, B., ^# and Dixon, L. ^# Immunization with ASFV-gene libraries elicits broad based responses. For Journal of Virology.

3)    Xiao, L. and Sykes, K.* Use of Random Peptide Reactivities to Analyze Host Immune Responses ofAfrican Swine Fever Virus Infection and Immunization. For The Veterinary Journal.

4)    Robida, M., A., Sheleg, S., Loskutov, A., Borovkov, A. , and Sykes, K.* Characteristics of charged versus conventional gold projectiles in gene gun immunization. For Vaccine.

5)    Whittemore, K., Shen, L., S. Johnston, and Sykes, K.* Antibody profiling of a novel cancer antigen derived from an SMC1 frameshift mutant. For Cancer Research.

2.     Refereed Book Chapters

1)    Johnston, S. A., Qu, Bao-Xi, McGuire, M. Stemke-Hale, K., and Sykes, K. 2000. Applications and future challenges for genetic vaccines. In: Development and Clinical Progress of DNA Vaccines Developments in Biologicals. Eds: Brown F., Cichutek, K., and Robertson, J., Basel, Karger, vol 104, pp. 3-8.

2)    Johnston, S. A., Sykes, K., and Barry, M. A. 1997. DNA-based Vaccines: extending the technology, In: New Generation Vaccines. Ed: Levine, Woodrow, Kaper, and Cobon.  Marcel Deker Publishers, New York. Ch 23, pp. 279-286.

3)    Sykes, K. 1995. FKB2 and FKBP-13 in: Guidebook to the Secretory Pathway, J. Rothblatt, P. Novick, and T. Stevens (eds.), Sambrook and Tooze Publishing, New York

4)    Sykes, K. and Kaufman, R. 1989. A human gamma globin gene variant binds Sp1. pp. 237-246. In: Hemoglobin Switching. G. Stamatoyannopoulos and A. Nienhuis (ed.), Alan R. Liss, Inc. New York.