Seminar series — Drug Delivery and Translational Medicine

Cell Engineering and Future Immuno-therapies

Department of Pharmacology & Pharmacy
 When:  

08 December 2023 (Friday) at 10:00 am - 11:00 am

Speaker:  
Professor Cheng Dong
 
Chair Professor,
Department of Biomedical Engineering,
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University

Abstract:
Efficient drug delivery strategies into solid tumors that target primarily malignant cells and avoid damaging healthy tissue are limited by the pharmacokinetics, solubility, and specificity of the chemotherapeutic drugs. Drug delivery into brain tumors is significantly more challenging due to the presence of the blood brain barrier. Glioblastoma, with a 5-year survival rate of only 5% is the most aggressive type of brain tumor. Despite modern treatment techniques (e.g., chemotherapy, radiation, and surgical removal), the prognosis remains dismal. To address this clinical challenge, we designed a targeted drug delivery system using genetically modified chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-T cells expressing high-affinity mutant Interleukin-13 to target glioblastoma tumors and polymeric nanoparticles to encapsulate the therapeutic drug. Immune cell mediated drug and gene deliveries provide a great translational opportunity to develop a targeted delivery system, which could significantly advance future biomedical engineering research to clinical applications and industrial commercialization.

Bio:
Professor Cheng Dong is Associate Vice President (Mainland Research Advancement) and Chair Professor of Cell Engineering and ImmunoMedicine in the Department of Biomedical Engineering of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. He also serves as the Director of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University Shenzhen Research Institute. He obtained his Bachelor’s degree in Engineering Mechanics and Fluid Dynamics from Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China and received his PhD degree in Bioengineering and Engineering Mechanics from Columbia University, USA. He was selected by the Chinese Ministry of Education as Yangtze River Scholar Chair Professor at Shanghai Jiao Tong University in 2009. He has been appointed as Distinguished Professor of Biomedical Engineering since 2009 and served as Department Head of Biomedical Engineering at Penn State during 2011-22. Professor Dong is a Fellow of the Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES), the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE), and the International Academy of Medical and Biological Engineering (IAMBE). He is a Managing Editor for Frontiers in Bioscience, and an Associate Editor for BMES Cellular and Molecular Bioengineering, Molecular and Cellular Biomechanics.

Details

 Venue:  

HKJC-S3,
G/F, Room G-05,
The HKJC Bldg for Interdisciplinary Research

All are welcome