Talk Title：Nature-inspired nanoparticles for gene and vaccine delivery
Speaker: Dr. Hao Song
Host: 陈炜 教授
Date: September 1, 2023
Time: 10:30 AM
Venue: Conference Room B5007,
JiaoCha Building No.2
Biography: Dr. Hao Song is an ARC DECRA & NHMRC Emerging Leadership Fellow at the Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology, the University of Queensland. Currently, he is a visiting sceintist at the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, Masschusesste Institute of Technology with Prof. Robert Langer. He obtained his PhD in biomedical engineering in 2018 from UQ, and his research focused on functional nanoparticles for gene and vaccine delivery. He published over 70 paper in Sci Adv, JACS, Adv Mater, Adv Sci, etc., with citations of 3600 times and an H-index of 33. As a chief investigator, he has attracted ~ $2.5 million of funding from both ARC and NHMRC, and promoted translations of his ‘Spiky Nanoparticle Technology’ in collaboration with several industrial partners lauching a product of NUVEC.
Abstract: The intriguing nature systems have inspired remarkable advances in the development of functional materials towards versatile applications. Pollen grains with distinct spiky surfaces are extraordinary delivery vectors in nature, where the rough surface enables strong adhesion towards the hairy legs of honeybees for pollination. The nano-sized viruses also show spiky features, where the protein spikes form multiple ‘entry claws’ promoting their cellular invasion. Spiky structures create fascinating properties at the bio-interfaces, while it is challenging to engineer spiky textures onto a single nanoparticle in a controllable manner for drug delivery applications. Here, we showcase our patented approach to fabricate silica nanoparticles of spiky surface, especially with precisely-tailored nanotopographies, and their applications as gene and vaccine delivery platform. [1-3] We demonstrated that the unique spiky feature favours entanglement with rope-like pDNA molecules, allowing strong binding/protection and efficient intracellular delivery.[4] We further explored the precise control over nanoparticle size,[5] asymmetry,[6, 7] surface chemistry,[8] and formulation lyophilization process[9] for enhanced plasmid DNA delivery at both in vitro and in vivo levels, gaining in-depth understandings at the bio-nano-interfaces. For vaccine applications, we also developed a series of nano-adjuvants that boost the immunisation performance,[10] including our most recent studies in developing DNA and subunit (RBD) spiky nano-vaccines for SARS-Cov-2.
