PME Special Immuno Seminar- Kaiyi Jiang

Cell engineering requires precise control of cell states and cell fates, yet existing methods lack sensitivity and programmability. Here, I present an integrated molecular toolbox combining novel multi-omics sensor with Al-guided protein engineering models to enable programmable cell control. In particular, reprogrammable ADAR Sensors (RADARS) allows conditional protein expression based on any combination of RNA transcripts, supporting applications such as cell-state recording and targeted ablation. I also discovered Csx29, the first RNA-guided protease from type III-E CRISPR systems, and characterized Fanzor, the first eukaryotic RNA-guided DNA nuclease-highlighting their genomic proteomic editing capabilities. To accelerate protein engineering, I developed EVOLVE-Pro, a state-of-the-art Al-driven model for rapid in silico evolution of protein activity. Together, these advances illuminate new avenues for decoding cell- state dynamics, engineering multi-omics perturbations, and developing therapeutic strategies for complex diseases.

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