TITLE: Stimuli-responsive and Multi-functional Nanomedicine
SPEAKER: Dr. Young Jik Kwon，Departments of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, and Molecular Biology and Biochemistry University of California, Irvine
TIME: 28 May（Thursday），PM14:00
LOCATION: Five-floor Lecture Hall， Chemistry Building A (化学A楼演讲厅)
INVITER: Prof. Shun-ai Che 

The current challenges in modern medicine include development of novel platforms that allow targeted and safe delivery and administration of therapeutic and diagnostic agents for effective and safe therapy, particularly in pathology-specific manners. The increasing use macromolecular, biologically-driven agents (such as nucleic acids, proteins, viruses, and cells) requires innovative carriers that are molecularly programed to encapsulate the agents, respond to pathological stimuli, and release/activate their payloads. In addition to pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamics hurdles, intracellular localization and processes often dictate the final therapeutic and diagnostic outcomes.

In this seminar, promising strategies to tackle this important question will be presented via design, synthesis, characterization, and evaluation of polymeric, viral, and polymer/virus hybrid nanomaterials that are molecularly engineered to deliver the payloads (e.g., drugs, nucleic acids, and imaging probes) to the extracellular and intracellular targets. In particular, 1) polymeric nanoparticles differentially degradable in the endosome, resulting in enhanced transfection via improved endosomal escape and targeted intracellular release/localization of their payloads, 2) highly versatile and efficient chimeric gene carriers that incorporate the advantages of both viral and nonviral vectors, and 3) nanotheragnostics for targeted gene silencing triggered only upon generating multiple optical signal changes will be presented. The crucial roles of interdisciplinary approaches encompassing biology, chemistry, engineering, and medicine will also be demonstrated in this talk.

About the speaker:  Dr. Young Jik Kwon is an associate professor with tenure at UC Irvine in the Pharmaceutical Sciences, Chemical Engineering & Materials Science, Biomedical Engineering, and Molecular Biology & Biochemistry departments. Following his undergraduate education in Biological Engineering at Inha University, Dr. Kwon received his Ph.D in Chemical Engineering from the University of Southern California with a focus on retroviral gene delivery in 2013 and did post-doctoral training in department of chemistry at UC Berkeley on polymeric vaccine carriers. He started his academic career in Biomedical Engineering at Case Western Reserve University in 2005 and moved to UC Irvine in 2007. He currently oversees research at the BioTherapeutics Engineering Laboratory (BioTEL) at UC Irvine and his current projects mainly focus on gene therapy, drug delivery, cancer-targeted therapeutics, combined molecular imaging and therapy, and cancer vaccines. Dr. Kwon is a member of the NCI-designated Chao Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, the institute for Immunology, and the Center for Virus Research at UC Irvine. Dr. Kwon’s work was awarded the Medical Research Award from Gabrielle\'s Angel Foundation for Cancer Research in 2011, the Faculty Early Career Development Award (CAREER) from the National Science Foundation in 2010, and the Faculty Career Development Award from UC Irvine in 2008. He has received the best reviewer in the subject area of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Elsevier (2011), Most downloaded article award, Journal of Controlled Release, Elsevier (2012), FEBS Journal Top-Cited Paper Award, Wiley (2013), and Top downloaded article award in 2014, Journal of Materials Chemistry, Royal Society of Chemistry Publishing (2014).