MSE Talk: Benjamin Keselowsky

Speaker: Benjamin Keselowsky, University of Florida

Title: Engineered Indoleamine 2,3-Dioxygenase for Immunometabolic Suppression of Inflammation

Abstract: This presentation highlights results from our molecular based approaches to direct the immune system toward suppression. We have developed tissue-anchored enzymes – chimeric enzyme-carbohydrate binding fusion proteins which direct localized immunometabolism toward suppression. Specifically, indoleamine 2,3 dioxygenase (IDO), which depletes tryptophan through the kynurenine pathway, is fused to galectin 3, which binds extracellular glycans and affords prolonged tissue retention. This approach has provided potent, confined suppressive metabolic programming in inflammation models including osteoarthritis, periodontal disease and psoriasis. We have further investigated engineering circulating IDO enzyme to prevent liver ischemic-reperfusion injury, psoriasis and other inflammatory conditions.

Bio: Benjamin G. Keselowsky is a Professor in the J. Crayton Pruitt Family Department of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Florida. He received his BS, Chemical Engineering from the University of South Florida, PhD, Bioengineering from Georgia Institute of Technology and joined as faculty at the University of Florida in 2005. He is/has been funded by the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, the Arthritis Foundation, the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation and Pfizer. He serves on editorial boards, including the Journal of Biomedical Materials Research-Part A, and the Journal of Materials Chemistry B, Scientific Reports, the Journal of Immunology and Regenerative Medicine, ACS Biomaterials Science and Engineering, and was an Associate Editor for Nanomedicine: Nanotechnology, Biology and Medicine. He has served as a standing member on the NIH Biomaterials and Biointerfaces Study Section. He is a recipient of the 2015 University of Florida Research Foundation Professorship Award, the 2016 UF Technology Innovator Award, the 2017 UF Preeminence Term Professorship Award and was inducted as a Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE) in 2018 and inducted as a Fellow of Biomaterials Science and Engineering in 2024.