王淳教授：University of Minnesota
报告主题：Polymers for Gene and Vaccine Delivery
报告人： 王淳 教授 Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Minnesota
主持人：陈永明教授
时间：2016年1月9日(星期六)下午4：00
地点：丰盛堂 A 403
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报告摘要：
Effective and safe drug therapy requires precise delivery of drugs to the right place, at the right time, with the right dose. Targeted drug delivery, or the “magic bullet”, has been intensely investigated over the last several decades, with promising yet limited success. The ideal drug delivery materials should be able to not only target specific tissues and organs, but also release drugs inside cells on demand, while the vehicles themselves can be degraded, absorbed or excreted by the body safely. The challenge of delivery becomes more daunting in the cases of gene therapy and genetic vaccination, when nucleic acid such as DNA or RNA is used as a drug or vaccine.
Viruses are supra-molecular colloidal particles that package genetic information and propagate themselves through infecting cells. Viral particles are structurally highly defined in multiple length-scales. They are also highly dynamic structures that respond “intelligently” to different cellular environment, helping orchestrate the complex processes involved in gene transfer. Since the early days of gene therapy, viral particles have been the inspiration for the design of synthetic, non-viral gene delivery vectors that could be potentially useful in treating many diseases. In our lab, we use a variety of tools, including synthetic polymer chemistry and protein engineering, to synthesize polymers and nano-materials that are biologically compatible and recapitulate certain structural and functional features of viruses. For example, we use “living” polymerization techniques to synthesize block copolymers with defined chain-length to mimic the highly defined nature of viral components. We also synthesize biodegradable polymers based on ortho esters that undergo accelerated hydrolysis triggered by mildly acid pH environment found in the endosome, a subcellular organelle of mammalian cells, to mimic the pH-triggered conformational change found in many viral vectors during gene transfer. Furthermore, specific ligands are engineered and incorporated with the polymers to achieve specific targeting to certain cell types. Our current interest is using these polymers to deliver DNA vaccine to antigen-presenting dendritic cells and modulate their phenotypic maturation that lead to enhanced antigen-specific immune responses for the treatment of a wide range of diseases including cancer. We are particularly interested in understanding the immunological mechanisms of polymer-mediated DNA vaccine delivery in cultured immune cells and in vivo.
报告人简介：
Degrees
- B.S., Chemistry, Nankai University, China, 1992
- M.S., Bioengineering, University of Utah, 1998
- Ph.D., Bioengineering, University of Utah, 2001
- NIH Postdoctoral Fellow, Chemical Engineering, MIT, 2004
Honors and Awards
Dow Corning Graduate Student Outstanding Research Award, Controlled Release Society, 1998
Capsugel Award for Innovative Aspects of Controlled Drug Release, Controlled Release Society, 1999
Individual National Research Service Award (postdoctoral), National Institutes of Health, 2002
CAREER Award, National Science Foundation, 2006
Early Career Translational Research Award, Wallace H. Coulter Foundation, 2007
McKnight Land-Grant Professorship, University of Minnesota, 2007-2009
