Patrick Barth

Patrick Barth is an Associate Professor at EPFL's School of Life Sciences (SV), leading the Laboratory of Protein and Cell Engineering (UPBARTH) within the Institute of Bioengineering (IBI-SV). He holds roles including Doctoral Program Director for the Computational and Quantitative Biology Program (EDCB-GE) and membership in the Doctoral Commission (CDOCT). His research focuses on computational and experimental methods to design proteins with novel functions, particularly membrane receptors for synthetic biology and cancer immunotherapy. Barth's lab integrates biophysics, structural biology, and artificial intelligence to study protein dynamics and engineer therapeutic systems.

Research Interests: Computational biology, protein design, membrane protein signaling, synthetic biology, GPCR engineering, and immunotherapy. His lab develops AI-based tools like AlloPool (a graph neural network for allosteric network prediction) and designs CAR T-cell therapies targeting tumor environments. Collaborations include the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research and Baylor College of Medicine.

Key Achievements: Pioneered computational design of allosteric networks in GPCRs, solved structures of activated dopamine receptors, and engineered CAR T-cell biosensors responsive to tumor microenvironments. Funded by grants from Swiss Cancer League and Swiss National Science Foundation. Over 100+ publications in journals like Nature, Nature Chemical Biology, and Nature Communications.

Labs & Teams: Leads the Protein and Cell Engineering Lab at EPFL and maintains a satellite lab at Baylor College of Medicine. The lab emphasizes interdisciplinary training, offering positions in computational modeling, protein engineering, and wet-lab experiments. Current projects include AI-driven protein design and translational therapies for cancer.