University of Missouri – Columbia (MU)
The goal of my research is to develop a novel and effective personalized diagnostic and therapeutic agent for treating NSCLC in humans. My research for the past 14 years are focused on design and development of nanoparticle and metal-based radioactive pharmaceuticals. As a PI and lead investigator of other NIH-funded grants in the field of nanomedicine, I have developed a library of nanoparticles for diagnosis and therapy of variety of cancers. In my laboratory, we have developed a gold nanorod-based immunohistochemistry assay for identifying and quanitifying proteins and mutations present in NSCLC tumor tissue. For example, we have already developed immunohistochemistry (IHC) assays for EGFR, cMET, L8585R and T790m in NSCLC human tissues. Also we have shown the clinical superiority of our assay than that of current gold standard. In the field of personalized therapy, we have developed multidimensional nanoparticles (MDNs) based on gelatin core functionalized with siRNA and targeting agent using “controlled fluidics.” We have shown the synthesis, in vivo stability, and efficacy of MDNs in siRNA and drug release.