【SFBC Lecture】Polymer Nanostructures that Direct Biological Function

Lecture：Prof. Ashutosh Chilkoti        

                 Theo Pilkington Chair in Biomedical Engineering 
                 Director of the Center for Biologically Inspired Materials and Materials Systems 
                 Duke University, USA

Time:       3:00  p.m.Wednesday,5th  June,2013

Address:   Multi-function Hall, College of Chemistry, Peking University 

Lecture  Abstract:

This lecture will cover developments in my laboratory over the past decade with relevance to the molecular design of Biomaterials. In the first example, I will describe a protein microarray that is built on a non-fouling polymer brush of poly(oligo(ethylene glycol) methyl ether methacrylate) (POEGMA). These “zero background” protein microarrays were successfully used to quantify protein analytes in serum with a femtomolar limit-of-detection (LOD) and a dynamic range of five orders of magnitude of analyte concentration directly from undiluted, whole blood. We have recently extended this approach to create a true point-of-care diagnostic –in which all reagents are printed and stored on the POEGMA brush– called the D4 assay. In the second part of my talk, I will introduce a class of stimulus responsive biopolymers called elastin-like polypeptides (ELPs). A primary focus of my research in ELPs is the development of applications in medicine that exploit their inverse transition behavior. These applications include the delivery of anticancer therapeutics to solid tumors by self-assembled nanoparticles of ELP-drug conjugates, diblock ELPs that self-assemble into monodisperse micelles in response to a thermal trigger, and other variants that can disassemble in response to the acidic environment of solid tumors.

Lecturer Profile:

Ashutosh Chilkoti is the Theo Pilkington Chair in Biomedical Engineering at Duke University. Prof. Chilkoti was awarded the CAREER award by the National Science Foundation in 1998, the 3M non-tenured faculty award in 2002, and was awarded the Distinguished Research Award from the Pratt School of Engineering at Duke University in 2003 and in 2005. He was awarded a senior researcher award by the Alexander Von Humboldt Foundation in 2010, the Clemson Award for Contributions to the Literature by the Society for Biomaterials in 2011, and the 2013 Robert A. Pritzker Distinguished Lecture award by the Biomedical Engineering Society. He is currently the Director of the Center for Biologically Inspired Materials and Materials Systems at Duke University. His areas of research include Biomolecular Engineering with a focus on stimulus responsive biopolymers for applications in protein purification and drug delivery, and Biointerface Science, with a focus on the development of clinical diagnostics and plasmonic biosensors. He has co-authored over 200 publications, has been cited ~12,000 times, has an H-index of 64, and has 17 patents awarded and 31 in process. He is the founder of a start-up company, PhaseBio Pharmaceuticals that has raised $65 million in venture capital funding and is taking drug delivery technology that he developed into clinical trials. He serves on the Editorial Board of five journals, and is a reviewer for over 20 other journals.