Director of Formulations
HDT Bio, United States
My research interests intersect the fields of materials science and vaccinology. I have spent over a decade studying and developing nanoparticle formulations for novel magnetic imaging modalities, vaccine adjuvants and nucleic acid delivery; specifically, I seek to understand how the composition and structure of nanoparticles affect their function in biological systems. Following completion of my PhD thesis, I co-founded LodeSpin Labs, where I optimized the physicochemical properties of superparamagnetic iron oxide (SPIO) nanoparticles for Magnetic Particle Imaging and Magnetic Resonance Imaging. In 2017, I joined IDRI (Seattle, WA) as a scientist in the formulations team, where I developed novel nanoparticle-based adjuvants for subunit vaccines and lipid-based delivery vehicles for RNA vaccines and therapeutics. Since then, my interest in optimizing the delivery of self-amplifying RNA vaccines using cationic emulsions led to several NIH-funded research grants to study and engineer the immune responses elicited by HDT Bio’s LION™ formulation. At HDT Bio, I lead the formulations team in advancing our current LION™ formulation through clinical development while also developing next-generation nanoparticle formulations, including LION for mucosal RNA delivery, RNA-encoded antibodies and nanoparticle-protein conjugates for tumor targeting. As part of a DOD discovery award, my team discovered the role of CDKs in regulating repRNA transgene expression. On another NIAID funded award, we identified chemistry and structure characteristics that correlate with delivery performance of LION.
Formulation Development of a Conjugatable Junction Opener Protein for DSG2 Positive Tumor Disruption
Thursday, October 12, 2023
1:15 PM – 1:30 PM PDT
Friday, October 13, 2023
9:15 AM – 9:30 AM PDT