Stephan Kudlacek

Stephan Kudlacek is an Associate Director, Protein Design at Menten AI, where they focus on protein design. Prior to joining Menten AI, Stephan was a PhD candidate and graduate research assistant at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. During their time at UNC, Stephan directed and contributed to the engineering of dengue and zika virus glycoprotein subunit antigens for vaccination and serum antibody epitope mapping.

Stephan's work in protein engineering has led to the development of dengue envelope glycoprotein stable dimer vaccine antigens that improve presentation of native protective dimer epitopes. Stephan has also engineered bi-specific antibodies to improve cancer imaging, overcome drug resistance, and investigate B-cell activation determinants. In addition, Stephan has designed and implemented new and existing methods for protein biophysical characterization at body temperature that have revealed physiologically relevant dengue/zika glycoprotein epitope presentation.

Stephan Kudlacek received their Bachelor of Science from UC Irvine in Chemistry with a Biochemistry Concentration. Stephan then went on to get their Doctor of Philosophy - PhD in Biochemistry and Biophysics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.