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Hire Jules R.

United States

Virologist and Antibody Engineer with 10+ years experience

Profile Summary

I’m driven to contribute to public health by developing and optimizing novel therapeutic options. Abbvie presents a wonderful opportunity to use my background in antibody engineering for virological, oncology, or inflammatory conditions. . To contribute to this I offer my extensive experience in antibody engineering and cell biology. I have numerous publications in this space throughout my PhD. I am practiced in isolating antibody libraries, screening for high-value candidates, purifying them at 10 mg scale for downstream applications, and determining functional characteristics in vitro and in situ. I am well versed in presenting statistical analysis, consolidated data , and relevant functional information for clear and efficient communication and planning. I am skilled at designing novel experimental plans for constructing, purifying, and validating antibodies. I am eager to contribute the work you do. Fikadu Tafesse Lab, PhD Candidate, Oregon Health & Science University | 2018 – 2024: I synthesized alpaca-derived antibody fragment libraries against emerging viral pathogens: Zika virus from 2018 to 2020, and SARS-CoV-2 from 2020 to 2024. My work on SARS-binding antibodies has resulted in two first authorships, with a third in progress. I published in Cell reports on SARS-CoV-1 antibodies as research tools or therapeutics for SARS-CoV-2. I published in iScience on a potent neutralizing nanobody against SARS-CoV-2 Spike RBD. I am working on publishing on SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid nanobodies that impede viral replication when expressed as intrabodies. Collaborated on designing nanobody libraries and isolating functional clones against Kras4b, HIV matrix, ubiquitin, MR1. I am certified for BSL3 work on SARS-CoV-2. Key skills developed here are developed skills in library construction, phage display, western blotting, protein purification, plaque and focus forming assays, ,RT-qPCR. William Messer Lab, Research Assistant 2, Oregon Health & Science University | 2015 – 2017: I worked as a RT-qPCR specialist, getting extensive experience with BSL2 viral Rt-qPCR pipelines. My work on DENV-2 –GFP viral clones here was part of a collaborative publication: Pervasive tertiary structure in the dengue virus RNA genome. PNAS. 2018. Key skills developed include tissue culture, flow cytometry, protein purification, virology, BSL2 virology and tissue culture, protein G purifications. Jay Mellies Lab, Summer Research Intern and Senior Thesis Student, Reed College | 2014 – 2015: I carried out RT-qPCR assays on Enteropathogenic E. coli virulence factors to study the virulence master regulator, Ler. Initial data was promising, so I expanded this into a thesis project focused around purifying and analyzing Ler mutants. I wrote a senior thesis from the resulting data titled "Altering Ler Linker Hydrophobicity Diminishes Regulatory Activity ", but did not publish any peer-reviewed literature from this position.

Subject Matter Expertise

• ☆ Microbiology
• ☆ Microbiome Research
• ☆ Virology
• ☆ Coronaviruses
• ☆ Zika Virus
• ☆ Retrovirology
• ☆ Molecular Virology
• ☆ Microbiological Assays
• ☆ Bacteriology
• ☆ Gram-Negative Bacteria
• ☆ Gram-Positive Bacteria
• ☆ Biostatistics
• ☆ Biochemistry
• ☆ Immunoassay
• ☆ Biochemical Assays
• ☆ Structural Biology
• ☆ Enzyme Activity Assays
• ☆ Binding Assays
• ☆ Molecular Biology
• ☆ Genetics
• ☆ Omics
• ☆ Transcriptomics
• ☆ Comparative Genomics
• ☆ Lipidomics
• ☆ Proteomics
• ☆ PCR
• ☆ Molecular Cloning
• ☆ Next Generation Sequencing (NGS)
• ☆ DNA Sequencing
• ☆ Protein Sequencing
• ☆ Gene Expression Analysis
• ☆ Genome Sequencing
• ☆ Mutagenesis
• ☆ Recombinant DNA
• ☆ RNA Synthesis
• ☆ DNA/Gene Synthesis
• ☆ Plasmid DNA
• ☆ Monoclonal Antibody Production
• ☆ Data Analysis
• ☆ Image Processing
• ☆ Predictive Modeling & Analytics
• ☆ Data Processing
• ☆ Cluster Analysis
• ☆ Data Visualization
• ☆ Data Collection
• ☆ Data Management
• ☆ Data Manipulation
• ☆ Artificial Intelligence
• ☆ Statistics
• ☆ Applied Statistics
• ☆ Comparative Analysis
• ☆ Mathematical Statistics
• ☆ Trend Analysis
• ☆ Bioinformatics
• ☆ Gene & Protein Expression Analysis
• ☆ Pathogenesis
• ☆ Clinical Microbiology
• ☆ Blotting
• ☆ Immunohistochemistry
• ☆ Python
• ☆ Excel
• ☆ LaTex
• ☆ R
• ☆ Drug Discovery
• ☆ High Throughput Screening (HTS)
• ☆ Drug Target Identification
• ☆ Phenotypic Assays
• ☆ High Content Screening/Imaging
• ☆ Structure-Activity Relationship (SAR) Studies
• ☆ Drug Development
• ☆ Microbiology Testing
• ☆ Drug Stability Testing
• ☆ Drug-Drug Interactions
• ☆ Drug Efficacy Testing
• ☆ Antibiotic Development
• ☆ Vaccine Development
• ☆ In vitro Diagnostics
• ☆ In vitro Diagnostic Validation
• ☆ In vitro Diagnostic Design
• ☆ Hypothesis
• ☆ Peer Review
• ☆ Research Methodology
• ☆ Fact Checking
• ☆ Literature Search
• ☆ Gray Literature Search

Services

• Writing
• Research
• Consulting
• Data & AI
• Product Development

Writing Technical Writing, Copywriting, Creative Writing, General Proofreading & Editing

Research Meta-Research, Technology Scouting, Fact Checking, Gap Analysis, Gray Literature Search, Scientific and Technical Research, Systematic Literature Review, Secondary Data Collection

Consulting Operations Consulting, Scientific and Technical Consulting

Data & AI Predictive Modeling, Statistical Analysis, Image Processing, Image Analysis, Data Visualization, Big Data Analytics

Product Development Stability/Shelf Life Testing, Product Evaluation, Product Validation

Work Experience

Graduate Researcher/Lab Manager

Oregon Health & Science University

September 2017 - September 2024

Research Assistant 2

Oregon Health and Science University

June 2015 - July 2017

Education

Ph.D (Molecular Microbiology and Immunology)

Oregon Health & Science University

September 2017 - September 2024

BA (Biology)

Reed College

August 2011 - May 2015

Certifications

• Doctorate of Philosophy: Microbiology and Immunology

  Oregon Health & Science University

  January 2024 - Present

• Bachelors of Arts: Biology

  Reed College

  January 2024 - Present

Publications

PREPRINT

Timothy A. Bates, Sintayehu K. Gurmesa, Jules B. Weinstein, Mila Trank-Greene, Xammy Huu Wrynla, Aidan Anastas, Teketay Wassie Anley, Audrey Hinchliff, Ujwal Shinde, John E. Burke, et al. (2024). An effective method of measuring nanobody binding kinetics and competition-based epitope mapping using biolayer interferometry .

JOURNAL ARTICLE

A global lipid map reveals host dependency factors conserved across SARS-CoV-2 variants <head> <META HTTP-EQUIV="Refresh" CONTENT="0;URL=/servlet/useragent"> </head> . Nature Communications.

Weinstein JB, Bates TA, Leier HC, McBride SK, Barklis E, Tafesse FG. A potent alpaca-derived nanobody that neutralizes SARS-CoV-2 variants. iScience. 2022 Mar 18;25(3):103960. doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2022.103960. Epub 2022 Feb 22. PMID: 35224467; PMCID: PMC8863326 .

Richard van Breemen, Muchiri RN, Timothy A Bates, Weinstein JB, Jules B. Weinstein, Hans Leier, Scotland Farley, Tafesse FG (2022). Cannabinoids Block Cellular Entry of SARS-CoV-2 and the Emerging Variants . Journal of natural products.

Neutralization of SARS-CoV-2 variants by convalescent and BNT162b2 vaccinated serum <head> <META HTTP-EQUIV="Refresh" CONTENT="0;URL=/servlet/useragent"> </head> . Nature Communications.

Timothy A. Bates, Jules B. Weinstein, Scotland Farley, Hans C. Leier, William B. Messer, Fikadu G. Tafesse (2021). Cross-reactivity of SARS-CoV structural protein antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 . Cell Reports.

A global lipid map defines a network essential for Zika virus replication <head> <META HTTP-EQUIV="Refresh" CONTENT="0;URL=/servlet/useragent"> </head> . Nature Communications.

Dethoff EA, Mark Boerneke, Nandan Satish Gokhale, Muhire BM, Martin DP, Sacco MT, Michael McFadden, Weinstein JB, Messer WB, Horner SM, et al. (2018). Pervasive tertiary structure in the dengue virus RNA genome . Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.