Presenter: Prof. Yong Wang (Penn State)
Topic: Programmable Biomaterials forProtein Delivery
Time: 9:00 AM, Jul. 12th (Tuesday)
Location: Conference Room B, BLDG909-1F
Abstract
The human body is a multifunctional object whose functions can beprecisely regulated in a dynamic but controllable manner. The fundamentalquestion our lab is interested in is whether the human being can develop amaterial that can undergo multiple, dynamic and controllable changes underphysiological conditions. To address this question, we have synthesized aseries of hydrogels using nucleic acid aptamers that are single-strandedoligonucleotides with the ability to bind target molecules or cells with highaffinities and specificities. We havefurther examined the properties of these hydrogels in controlling the releaseof protein drugs. Different from traditional hydrogels that are highlypermeable, aptamer-functionalized hydrogels can stably sequester and retainsoluble proteins. Importantly, rationally designed triggering molecules canregulate the functions of aptamers in molecular recognition for on-demandprotein release from hydrogels at the right time and at the right amount. Inaddition to proteins, we have applied aptamers and triggering molecules tomanipulate the binding states of living cells and found that cell catch andrelease can be programmed on the hydrogel surface. Therefore, our effort hasled to a new paradigm in developing biomaterials that hold great potential ofmimicking the functions of the human body for various biological and biomedicalapplications.
Biography
Dr. Yong Wang is currently a professorin Department of Biomedical Engineering at Penn State. Hewas promoted to professor in July 2016. He obtained his B.S. in 1995 from JilinUniversity, Changchun, China, and M.Sc. in 1998 from Chinese Academy ofSciences, China. He obtained his PhD from Duke University. He joined Penn Statein January, 2013. His current researchinterests lie at the intersection of Biomedical Engineering and Nucleic AcidsResearch. He received NSF CAREER Award in 2010 and NSF INSPIRE Award in 2012. Manypapers were published in Angewandte Chemie International Edition, Journalof the American Chemical Society, Biomaterials and so on.
Contact:Prof. Lichen Yin
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