How much biological drug eventually make the journey into the cells? This is a key question in the intracellular delivery field, but we do not have a comprehensive answer yet. We aim to develop simple and accurate methods to evaluate intracellular delivery by bioorthogonal reactions and new imaging strategies. Our research will lead to a better understanding of nanomedicine and biological drugs inside cells, and eventually contribute to the development of new drug formulations in the future.
In our multidisciplinary team, we have developed a pipeline for biotherapeutics formulation. We use basic molecular biology techniques, including molecular cloning, plasmid extraction and in vitro transcription to produce the gene of interests. These gene of interests are encapsulated in lipid or polymeric nanoparticles, following by surface conjugation to enhance the targeting capability. Currently we mainly use these nanoparticles for cancer immunotherapy, and we are happy to share our expertise with potential collaborators if you are interested to use these nanoparticles in your favorite disease model.