ChE Seminar: Peptide-Enabled Design of Supramolecular Therapeutics

Details

Honggang Cui, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Whiting School of Engineering; Department of Oncology, School of Medicine, The Johns Hopkins University

Title: Peptide-Enabled Design of Supramolecular Therapeutics

Abstract: Drugs are a special class of chemical substances that produce a biological effect when administered to a living organism. For use in medical treatments, nearly all drugs need to be formulated in order to maximize its therapeutic efficacy while minimizing the possible side effects. In this lecture, I will detail our recent progress in leveraging the biological and assembling characteristics of peptides to develop a new class of peptide-drug conjugates that can self-assemble into discreate supramolecular therapeutics for systemic and inhalable delivery, as well as supramolecular polymeric hydrogels for local treatment of human diseases. Our studies show that molecular design, assembly conditions and kinetic pathways are all critical factors that govern the resultant nanostructures and consequently their therapeutic outcomes. These findings have led us to believe that self-assembly of drugs offers an innovative yet facile way for drug formulation, producing drug-based nanomaterials for use in a wide variety of biomedical settings.

Bio: Honggang Cui is currently Associate Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the Johns Hopkins University, and also holds joint appointments in the Department of Oncology and Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. His work in molecular assembly and biomolecular engineering has led to 140 published manuscripts in journals such as Science, Cell, JACS, PNAS, and Journal of Controlled Release. Dr. Cui received a number of recognitions including the NSF CAREER Award, the Fellow of American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering, the 3M Non-Tenured Faculty Award, Johns Hopkins Catalyst Award, and Johns Hopkins Discovery Award. He is currently an Associate Editor for the Journal of Controlled Release.