We work at the interface between chemistry, biology and engineering, with a primary focus on addressing the three major challenges in cancer nanomedicine. 1) Physiological defense mechanism - During treatment, nanomedicine encounters the physiological system comprised of blood, serum protein and the immune system. These physiological residents recognize nanomedicine as an invader and try to dislodge it via opsonization (protein absorption), macrophage (immune cell) uptake, or renal excretion, thereby limiting the availability of the drug in the system. 2) Intracellular defense mechanism - Nanomedicine in the cells can be degraded and lose potency during endocytosis. 3) Molecular challenges - Over the course of drug treatment, cells develop drug resistance by altering the drug targets, increasing drug metabolism, and over-expressing drug efflux pump.
At UT-Tyler, his research group is continuously working to address a fundamental question in drug delivery: how medicine is robustly tuned to communicate with the immune system for cooperative treatment.
Research:
- Studies ways to improve cancer nanomedicine so that target tumor cells won't develop resistance, degrade or excrete the drug
