 Bin Liu, 3rd YearProgram: Chemistry Advisor: S. Thayumanavan Education: Nankai University Material Chemistry B.S. 2009 Polymer Chemistry & Physics M.S. 2012 |
Research Summary
Biomolecular delivery and targeted immunotherapy.
One project is about the targeted immunotherapy in collaboration with prof.Barbara Osborne’s lab. The immunotherapy is a promise method for cancer therapy.In order to increase the efficiency, the targeted immunotherapy is desirable. But it is achallege to activate the specific immune cells. In this project, we choose the mannoseas the ligand to target the dentritic cells. The amphiphilic polymer was used as thevector for the agnoist and the targeting ligand. The mannose was acted as the targetmoiety as well as the hydrophilic part, while the agonist was decorated onto thepolymer as the hydrophobic part through the self-immolative linker. After conjugation,the activity of the agonist will be blocked, which can reduce the side effect of theagonist. The micelle was formed through the self-assembly of the amphiphilicpolymer with the agonist as the core and mannose as the shell. This micelle canspecifically target the dentrtic cells due to the abundant of the mannose receptor ontheir surface. After the micelle enters the cells, the agonist will be cleaved from thepolymer to regenerate the original agonist in the active form due to the highconcentration of Glutathione. The agonist will bind to the Toll-like receptor 8 on theendosome, which will activate the dentritic cell for immunotherapy.The other project is about the RNA delivery in collaboration with prof. JesseMager’s lab. Most of the delivery systems for the RNA delivery were based on theelectrostatic interaction between the negative charged RNA and the positive chargedpolymers. However, the positive charged polymers usually have high toxcity. In thisproject, the thiol modified siRNA (one end) were conjugated onto the amphiphilicpolymer through the thiol-thiol exchange. The micelle from the self-assembly of theRNA conjugated amphiphilic polymer will faciliate the RNA going into the cellthrough the endocytosis. Further, the both end of the RNA were modified with thethiol group as the crosslinker of the nanogel, which was used for the RNAi. Further, the protein delivery project was aimed on antibody and antigen forimmunotherapy. Right now I just did some work about the methodology. The furtherwork will collaborate with prof. Jeanne Hardy and prof. Lisa Minter.