Chemical Engineering Seminar

The Green lab uses biodegradable polymers to construct nanoparticles that are safe and effective for intracellular delivery of DNA and siRNA and that can be used to engineer target cells from the "inside out."  Additionally, they develop biomimetic particles that act as artificial antigen presenting cells that can program biological immune cells from the "outside in."  Both of these biotechnologies will be discussed in this presentation.  For intracellular delivery, the effect of differential polymer structure on the delivery of nucleic acids of different structures and sizes will be elucidated.  Biomaterial structure, and in particular polymer end-group, can determine cell-type specificity of nanoparticles in a range of cell types, including cancer cells vs. healthy cells.  Biomaterial degradation mechanism, and in particular bioreducible disulfide linkages, can enable environmentally triggered release and high siRNA-mediated knockdown.  The role of particle size and shape in constructing artificial antigen presenting cells and how these biomimetic particles can be used in cancer immunotherapy will also be presented.