About Me
I'm a protein engineer specializing in display technologies for therapeutic molecule discovery and optimization. I work across antibodies, TCRs, and macrocyclic peptides using phage, yeast, and mRNA display, and I bring in structural and computational approaches when the problem calls for it. I publish under my legal name, Charles Christopher Stutz.
Currently I'm an Associate Director at Repertoire Immune Medicines, where I built our yeast display platform for TCR engineering from the ground up and lead a team delivering optimized molecules across multiple programs. Previously, I spent six years at Bristol-Myers Squibb working on antibody discovery and peptide therapeutics.
My PhD at the University of Wisconsin-Madison focused on using in vivo phage display and next-generation sequencing to find antibodies that target the blood-brain barrier.
Research Interests
My core interest is in designing and optimizing selection strategies and library architectures to meet specific program needs. I'm particularly focused on the interface between machine learning and protein engineering — collaborating with ML teams to design computationally generated libraries and using yeast display to test and iterate on those designs. I see display technologies as more than discovery tools. They're uniquely positioned to generate the data that makes ML-driven protein design practical.
Publications
Published under Charles C. Stutz
- Georgieva, J. V., Goulatis, L. I., Stutz, C. C., Canfield, S. G., Song, H. W., Gastfriend, B. D. & Shusta, E. V. Antibody screening using a human iPSC-based blood-brain barrier model identifies antibodies that accumulate in the CNS. FASEB J. 34, 12549–12564 (2020). PubMed
- Stutz, C. C., Georgieva, J. V. & Shusta, E. V. Coupling brain perfusion screens and next generation sequencing to identify blood–brain barrier binding antibodies. AIChE J. 64, 4229–4236 (2018). PubMed
- Jones, A. R., Stutz, C. C., Zhou, Y., Marks, J. D. & Shusta, E. V. Identifying blood–brain-barrier selective single-chain antibody fragments. Biotechnol. J. 9, 664–674 (2014). PubMed
- Stutz, C. C., Zhang, X. & Shusta, E. V. Combinatorial approaches for the identification of brain drug delivery targets. Curr. Pharm. Des. 20, 1564–1576 (2014). PubMed
Presentations & Posters
- Nardozzi, J. D., Sackton, K. L., Pratama, A., Stutz, C. C., Konakondla, J. V., Holthaus, A. M., Swain, J. F., Coyle, A. J. & Gullá, S. V. Discovery and characterization of silent CD8 antibodies for therapeutic applications. PEGS Boston (May 2022).
- Stutz, C. C., Jones, A. R., Tan, S. Z. & Shusta, E. V. Isolation and characterization of novel antibodies that target the blood–brain barrier. AIChE Annual Meeting (October 2011).
Patents
- Shusta, E. V., Stutz, C. C., Goulatis, L. & Georgieva, J. Human blood-brain barrier targeting antibodies. US Patent 12492251 (2025). Google Patents
- Nardozzi, J. D., Sackton, K. L., Stutz, C. C., Jones, D. S., Gulla, S. V. & Pratama, A. CD8-targeted IL-12 fusion proteins. US Patent App. 20250101107 (2025). Google Patents
- Shusta, E. V. & Stutz, C. C. Blood brain barrier (BBB)-selective antibodies and methods of use thereof to target agents to the BBB. US Patent 12161889 (2024). Google Patents
Contact
Email: ccstutz[at]protonmail[dot]com
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/ccstutz