Dr. Jennifer Maynard is the ZD Bonner Professor of Chemical Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin. She received her undergraduate degree in Human Biology from Stanford University, followed by a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin, and post-doctoral studies as an NIH NRSA fellow in Microbiology and Immunology at Stanford University.
Dr. Maynard returned to the University of Texas at Austin as a faculty member in 2007. Her research focuses on the development of protein therapeutics and vaccines to address unmet medical needs in infectious diseases using protein biochemistry tools. Dr. Maynard co-invented the approved inhalation anthrax drug ANTHIM® (olbitoxaximab), antibody cocktails for the prevention or treatment of pertussis (whooping cough, licensed for development and received orphan drug designation), vaccine candidates for pertussis and SARS-COVID-19 (in clinical testing), and therapeutic antibodies for other infectious diseases.
Dr. Maynard's CPRIT-funded projects include engineering the antibody Fc domain for selective cytotoxic activity in the low pH typical of the tumor micro-environment with the goal of reducing on-target, off-tumor side effects. Her group has also developed a novel bispecific antibody targeting a viral cytomegalovirus protein that is selectively expressed in glioblastomas. Dr. Maynard is a Co-founder of Texas Biologics, established in 2021 to promote the discovery and development of injectable drugs (biologics) at The University of Texas at Austin. In 2022 she established and currently leads the Advanced Protein Therapeutics Core Facility funded by an approximately $4 million grant by the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas.
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