Irvine Lab

One of the central challenges in modern medicine is controlling our immune system with precision – activating the right functions when they protect us and suppressing harmful ones when they cause disease. Yet most existing approaches for immune modulation remain blunt, broadly influencing many cells and functions rather than selectively producing the response needed to treat a particular disease.

To address this, the Irvine Lab studies how proteins instruct immune cells, and how those instructions can be redesigned. We focus on antibodies and other immune-modulating proteins, which communicate with immune cells to clear infection, eliminate cancerous cells, and limit harmful inflammation. By combining protein engineering, machine learning, and experimental immunology, we build platforms to map and predict how protein sequence and structure shape receptor engagement and the biological outcomes that follow. We then use these platforms to design proteins that precisely control immune responses and improve human health.

Long-term, our vision is to engineer the immune system with the same level of precision that is now routine in electrical and mechanical systems, transforming how we understand, prevent, and treat human disease.