Speaker

Dr. Yichun Wang, Assistant Professor, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of Notre Dame

Abstract

Exosomes are a subset of extracellular vesicles, with diameters between 50 nm and 150 nm, secreted by most eukaryotic cells. They are very promising drug delivery vehicles due to their small size, biocompatibility, low immunogenicity, and reduced toxicity in comparison with synthetic nanoscale formulations such as liposomes, dendrimers, and polymers. However, there remain fundamental challenges to the utilization of exosomes in the clinic: i) drug loading efficiency into exosomes is very limited; ii) the production of exosomes has yet to reach sufficient high throughput for clinical tests or even further development; iii) endowing exosomes with multiple abilities for satisfactory disease targeting, tracking and combinational therapies is highly demanding. In this seminar, I will introduce a convergent bioengineered platform enabled by engineered biomimetic materials developed in The Wang Lab at the University of Notre Dame for advancing therapeutic exosomes in future medicine. This platform includes 1) A high-efficiency exosome drug loading technology with chiral graphene nanoparticles; 2) A high-yield in vitro exosome production cell culture scaffold with stimulating piezoelectric nanofibers; 3) Engineered hybrid exosomes with biomimetic nanoparticles as a multifunctional targeted delivery system for cancer treatment. The platform allows loading drugs into exosomes with high efficiency, biomanufacturing exosomes in high throughput, and further engineering exosome-based drug delivery systems for various diseases with desired functions including targeted delivery, imaging, and multifunctional therapies.

Biography

Dr. Yichun Wang joined Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the University of Notre Dame as an assistant professor in 2020 fall. She received her training as a postdoctoral research fellow in Chemical Engineering at the University of Michigan, where her research was focused on the development of new generation nanobiotics targeting amyloid protein in extracellular matrix of biofilm. She obtained the PhD degree in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Michigan, working on theoretical and experimental framework of ex-vivo evaluation system based on engineered 3D tissue culture models with tunable microenvironment. Currently, her research lab at Notre Dame is dedicated to the rational design of biomimetic nanomaterials, including chiral nanoparticles and nanocomposites, to empower next-generation medicine for treating cancer and neurodegenerative disease, by combining engineering, theoretical models, and computation. By doing so, she aims to provide valuable insights and advancements in the application of nanomaterials in healthcare. Her work holds great promise in innovating healthcare through cutting-edge nanotechnology research, earning her multiple recent grants, including the NIH Maximizing Investigators’ Research Award (MIRA), as well as more than 30 peered reviewed publications.