Molecularly Engineering Polymers for Drug and Nucleic Acid Delivery

Utility of polymers in pharmaceutical and biomedical research has led to the creation of a vast array of diagnostic and therapeutic agents with great potential for clinical applications. Yang laboratory has been dedicated to the development of novel polymers, nanoscale structures and high-dimensional structures on the basis of nanostructured building blocks for drug and gene delivery. His team has successfully applied those delivery systems to tackle delivery issues encountered in various medical problems such as cancer, CNS disorders, and glaucoma. The molecular rational design and synthesis of novel polymer-based drug and gene delivery systems and latest pre-clinical progress made in his laboratory will be presented in his talk.

Biography

Dr. Hu Yang received his B.E. degree in Chemical Fiber/Polymer from Sichuan University, China, in 1998. He received his Ph.D. degree in Chemical Engineering from The University of Akron in 2004. After working as a postdoctoral research scientist in School of Pharmacy at University of Wisconsin-Madison for a year, Dr. Yang joined the faculty of Virginia Commonwealth University in September 2005 with a primary appointment in the Department of Biomedical Engineering and established the Biomaterials and Drug Delivery Laboratory. His research and education activities have been recognized by NSF CAREER Award and Wallace H. Coulter Translational Research Award. Dr. Yang’s research has been well funded by grants from various sources including NSF, NIH, Wallace H. Coulter Foundation, U.S. Department of Commerce, etc. Dr. Yang has authored over 40 research articles and book chapters and is the inventor on multiple patent applications. He has served as grant reviewer for a number of funding agencies such as NIH, NSF, and U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.