TOPIC： Molecular Engineering of Polymeric Materials for Innovative Medical Solutions: a Simple, Novel and Applicable Strategy
SPEAKER： Dr. Shiyi Zhang, Departments of Chemical, Biological and Mechanical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
TIME：APRIL 8 (Friday) AM9:00
LOCATION： Room 410, Chemistry Building B (化学B楼410会议室)
INVITER： Prof. Xinyuan Zhu (朱新远教授)
 

ABSTRACT:

The innovative engineering methodologies that allow for the preparation of functional polymer materials by simple strategies have significant fundamental interest and enormous potential to address unmet clinical needs. This talk will focus on the design principle that is simple, novel and applicable, for the development of polymeric materials for distinct applications. In treating three pulmonary diseases, two degradable nanoparticle systems based on one functional polyphosphoester will be discussed, with the highlight of the simple, efficient and versatile chemistry involved in each stage of the production. For the prolonged gastric retention with improved safety profile, the development of three polymer systems will be presented, giving the emphasis to a novel pH-responsive supramolecular gel that helped to achieve a 5-7 days gastric retention in a large animal model promising the application to solve the poor medication adherence.

BIO:

Dr. Shiyi Zhang came from China in 2008 after his undergraduate study at Peking University in Beijing.  He completed a Ph.D. in Chemistry in 2013 at the Washington University in St. Louis working with Prof. Karen L. Wooley.  His PhD research interests ranged from degradable polymers for nanomedicine to the self-assembly of functional nanostructures.  Upon the completion of his PhD, he arrived at MIT as a Postdoctoral Fellow working with Prof. Robert S. Langer and Dr. C. Giovanni Traverso, focusing on prolonged gastric retention systems for extended drug delivery.  Dr. Zhang’s research appears in more than twenty-seven articles in leading chemistry and materials journals, and results five US and international patents.