Education

B.A., Chemistry (Honors) and Mathematics, New York University

Ph.D., Chemistry, University of Pennsylvania

Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Department of Molecular Medicine,
Boston Children’s Hospital/Harvard Medical School

Teaching

CHEM 038: Biological Chemistry I

CHEM 048: Biological Chemistry II

CHEM 058: Advanced Experimental Biological Chemistry

CHEM 094: Research Project

CHEM 118: Special Topics in Biochemistry and Its Applications

CHEM 199: Senior Thesis Workshop

Research

Research in the Fera lab focuses on understanding the development of antibodies against viruses. Antibodies play an important role in the immune system by identifying and fighting off such pathogens and preventing infectivity. Sometimes, however, deregulated pathways can result in antibodies that target a host’s own tissues, resulting in disease. Protein kinases, which act as molecular on/off switches in the cell, are important for generating the correct responses when faced with a pathogen. Thus, the long-term goal of our research is to merge biochemical studies and three-dimensional structures to create models for guiding the development of vaccines and therapies. Towards this goal, students will employ a variety of biochemical techniques, including X-ray crystallography and electron microscopy, to investigate these molecules and their complexes.

Recent Publications (undergraduate students are underlined)

Finkelstein*, M.T, Parker Miller*, E., Erdman, M.C., and Fera, D. (2022) Analysis of Two Cooperating Antibodies Unveils Immune Pressure Imposed on HIV Env to Elicit a V3-Glycan Supersite Broadly Neutralizing Antibody Lineage. Frontiers in Immunology. 13:962939. doi: https://doi.org/10.3389/fimmu.2022.962939 (*equal contribution) 

Parker Miller*, E., Finkelstein*, M.T, Erdman, M.C., Seth, P.C., and Fera, D. (2021) A Structural Update of Neutralizing Epitopes on the HIV Envelope, a Moving Target. Viruses. 13(9), 1774. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/v13091774 (*equal contribution)

Williams, W.B, Meyerhoff, R.R., Edwards R.J., Li, H., Manne, K., Nicely, N., Henderson, R., Zhou, Y., Janowska, K., Mansouri, K., Gobeil, S., Evangelous, T., Hora, B., Madison, B., Abuahmad, A.Y., Sprenz, J., Deyton, M., Stalls, V., Kopp, M., Hsu, A., Borgnia, M., Stewart-Jones, G., Lee, M., Bronkema, N., Moody, M.A., Wiehe, K., Bradley, T., Alam, S.M., Parks, R.J., Foulger, A., Oguin, T., Bonsignori, M., LaBranche, C.C., Montefiori, D.C., Seaman, M., Santra, S., Perfect, J., Francica, J., Lynn, G., Aussedet, B., Walkowicz, W.E., Laga, R., Kelsoe, G., Saunders, K.O, Fera, D., Kwong P.D., Seder, R., Bartesaghi, A., Shaw, G.M., Acharya, P., and Haynes, B.F., (2021) Fab-dimerized glycan-reactive antibodies are a structural category of natural antibodies. Cell. 184 (11) 2955-2972.e25.  DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2021.04.042

Finkelstein*, M.T, Mermelstein*, A.G., Parker Miller, E., Seth, P.C., Stancofski, E.D., and Fera, D. (2021) Structural Analysis of Neutralizing Epitopes of the SARS-CoV-2 Spike to Guide Therapy and Vaccine Design Strategies. Viruses. 13(1), 134; DOI: 10.3390/v13010134 (*equal contribution)

Nguyen, D., Lin, Y, Zhou, J.O., Kibby, E., Sia, T., Tillis, T., Vapuryan, N., Xu, M.R., Potluri, R., Shin, Y.J., Erler, E., Bronkema, N., Boehlmer, D., Chung, C., Burkhard, C., Zeng, S.H., Grasso, M., Acevedo, L.A., Marmorstein, R., and Fera, D. (2020) Identification and Characterization of a Critical Alpha Helix in B-Raf Kinase Critical for the Activity of MEK Kinase in MAPK Signaling. Biochemistry. 59, 4755-4765  
DOI: 10.1021/acs.biochem.0c00598

Zhou, J.O., Zaidi, H.A., Ton, T.,  and Fera, D. (2020). The effects of framework mutations at the variable domain interface on antibody affinity maturation in an HIV-1 broadly neutralizing antibody lineage. Frontiers in Immunology. 11:1529 DOI: 10.3389/fimmu.2020.01529

Bajic, G., Maron, M., Caradonna, T., Tian, M., Mermelstein, A., Fera, D., Kelsoe, G., Kuraoka, M, Schmidt, A. (2020) Structure-guided molecular grafting of a complex broadly neutralizing viral epitope. ACS Infect Dis. 6(5):1182-1191. DOI: 10.1021/acsinfecdis.0c00008.