PhD
Research Associate Professor, Division of Molecular Pharmaceutics
UNC-Chapel Hill
Molecular Therapeutics
Area of Interest
My research focuses on leveraging materials science, bioengineering approached and biology to design next generation theranostic and drug delivery systems with the emphasis on diagnosis and treatment of cancer.
My vision is to use knowledge acquired in basic studies of material properties and their interactions with the loaded cargo and biological systems to:
- Improve drug delivery to and treatments of brain tumors such medulloblastoma and others
- Design sustained release systems for the diagnosis/treatment of residual disease and metastatic spread
My main focus is on delivery of small molecule drugs for the treatment of medullobpastoma with potential additional emphasis on brain primary and metastatic tumors. The focus of the research is combination of improved brain and tumor delivery and specific pathway targeting with the aim of develop a cancer cell specific inhibition rather than non specific and non-selective killing of cancer cells.
Our group has successfully developed a novel drug delivery platform based on high-capacity poly(2-oxazoline) (POx) polymeric micelles. Notably, multiple agents can be co-formulated within the same POx micelles. We were able to show the potential of Smo targeting, CDK 4/6 targeting, PIK3/Akt/MTor targeting in improving treatment outcomes.
Cancer immunotherapy, the utilization of the patients’ own immune system to treat cancer, has emerged as a powerful new strategy in cancer treatment. The development of antibodies that can block CPI pathways, such as the cytotoxic T-lymphocyte–associated antigen 4 (CTLA-4) and programmed cell death 1 (PD-1), have resulted in clinical improvements in patients that have not been seen previously.
Recent clinical data has demonstrated immunotherapy to be effective in a wide range of cancers, including lung, bladder, renal cell, colorectal, gastro-esophageal, and head and neck cancers. However, clinical reports of immune-based treatments for medulloblastomas are scarce and preliminary. Therefore, there is a need in developing strategies to improve medulloblastoma immunotherapy. My current work is focusing on developing macrophages targeting immunotherapy, both through improved delivery (polymeric micelles, exosomes) as well as target optimization (additional therapeutic agents/agents’ combination.
