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MSL Seminar Series: March – Invited Speaker, Dr. Juliane Nguyen
March 19 @ 3:00 pm - 4:00 pm
Invited Speaker:
Dr. Juliane Nguyen
Professor and Vice Chair, Division of Pharmacoengineering and Molecular Pharmaceutics
School of Pharmacy, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
This seminar will be presented in a hybrid format. Audience members are welcome to attend either in person at the MSL lecture theatre (room 102) or via the zoom link. Those connecting via zoom will be able to ask questions during the Q&A portion using the chat function.
Host: Dr. Anna Blakney
Zoom registration link: https://ubc.zoom.us/meeting/register/udf3j60GR7i3GAAPQbK37Q#/registration
Talk title: Sticky Solutions: Probiotics, Velcro, and Zippers in Targeted Therapies
Abstract:
This talk will explore different targeting strategies to enhance therapeutic efficacy at specific disease sites in the body. The first part will focus on amplifying targetable surface areas using a novel approach where each dose of nanoparticles, cells, or other therapeutics acts as a capturing surface for subsequent doses. This method significantly improves drug accumulation at disease sites, specifically the infarcted heart.
The second part of the talk will discuss targeted strategies to compete against trillions of host microbes in the gut, enhancing the therapeutic efficacy of a probiotic yeast. We engineered Saccharomyces boulardii to bind to extracellular matrix proteins within inflammatory lesions, significantly increasing its concentration and residence time in the gut, leading to improved treatment outcomes for inflammatory bowel diseases.
