The central question that my lab focuses on is how to transport the cargo to the site of interest in human body with the high specificity and efficiency.
My research synergizes multiple disciplines spanning from cell and cancer biology, phage display and peptide engineering, nanomaterial to clinical imaging and cancer therapies.
The ultimate goals are to discover new delivery technologies, decode the underlying transport machineries, and develop novel diagnosis and treatment for cancer and other human diseases.
Discovering new
The cornerstone of my research is in vivo phage display, a powerful and high throughput technology to discover peptides selectively recognizing the cells/organs/tissues of interest.
Upon systemic administration, these peptides are capable to travel, together with the imaging and therapeutic payloads, specifically to the target tissues/cells but not elsewhere.
Ongoing projects aims at various immune cells in solid tumors (macrophages, regulatory T cells, dendritic cells, etc.), as well as cells within cardiovascular and nervous systems.
Understanding how
Upon identifying candidate peptides, we will elucidate the underlying mechanism to achieve tissue/cell-specific homing, and investigate the genetic networks of the host that regulate the efficiency of peptide-cargo transport.
Solid tumors are my primary focus, the stroma of which represent a major challenge to drug delivery.
My research has unveiled a novel macropinocytic pathway into tumor cells, whose activity is regulated by nutrient availability and mTOR signaling. Additionally, my study revealed a cell-to-cell transport route that allows the cargo penetrating throughout tumor stroma.
Ongoing research aims to decode the molecular machineries that regulate these transport pathways.
Achieving better
The ultimate goal of our efforts is to improve the detection and therapies for human diseases through synergizing active targeting and delivery technologies. Currently we are pursuing two directions. The first is to combine tumor-targeting peptides with “etchable” nano-sized probes for MRI/PET imaging. These probes are of unique properties to lower the background “noise” in the circulation while increasing the signal intensity in tumors, thus enhancing the signal-to-noise ratio of tumor detection. The second project is to apply active targeting and nanomaterials in improving the delivery and thus clinical efficacy of nucleotide-based drugs into solid tumors.