Marina Luchner

My research focuses on engineering AAV capsid protein to improve its properties for the delivery of gene therapies. Harnessing the power of statistical modeling and machine learning, we aim to screen the protein sequence space efficiently for variants with enhanced capabilities. Therefore, we are cycling through rounds of in vitro selection and in silico mutagenesis, following the directed evolution approach. I am working on this project in collaboration with the Steel Lab at the Department of Engineering Science.

I studied Biochemistry (BSc) at the Technical University of Munich with a stint as a visiting student at the University of Oxford. I then returned to Oxford to pursue the Interdisciplinary Biosciences Doctoral Training Programme. During my undergraduate studies, I worked as a research assistant in machine learning-assisted automation and synthetic biology.