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August 24, 2026
Jingwei Zhang, Pharmsci graduate student (Wenthur Lab), will be defending his PhD research thesis:
Design and Synthesis of Conjugate Vaccines for the Detection and Immunological Targeting of Psychoactive Drugs
Abstract:
Antibodies capable of recognizing psychoactive small molecules provide valuable tools for drug detection, mechanistic pharmacology, and mitigation of drug effects. This dissertation develops conjugate vaccines targeting several classes of psychoactive drugs, with an emphasis on controlling antibody selectivity and cross-reactivity through hapten design and bioconjugation. First, an N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT)-carrier conjugate vaccine was developed to examine broad molecular recognition across natural product and novel psychoactive substance tryptamines, revealing structural features that govern antibody cross-reactivity within this drug class. Next, enantiopure and racemic 6-hydroxynorketamine (6-HNK) haptens were synthesized and conjugated to investigate the influence of hapten stereochemistry on antibody recognition, ultimately enabling monoclonal antibody differentiation between stereoisomers of the ketamine metabolite 6-HNK. Finally, conjugate vaccine strategies were extended to structurally distinct opioid classes through the synthesis and bioconjugation of fentanyl and nitazene haptens and the investigation of a modular hapten-clustering approach for broadening opioid recognition. Collectively, these studies demonstrate how hapten design and bioconjugation strategy can be manipulated to tailor antibody recognition of psychoactive small molecules, providing a foundation for immunological tools spanning highly selective molecular differentiation to broad drug-class recognition.
Note: Alternate location for this event is in Room 2339 (Rennebohm Hall), in case Room 1116 is not available.