BIOE Seminar: Porphyrin-Phospholipid Liposomes for Drug & Antigen Delivery
Friday, December 10, 2021
9:00 a.m.-10:00 a.m.
A. James Clark Hall, Room 2121
For More Information:
Huang Chiao (Joe) Huang
hchuang@umd.edu

Jonathan Lovell
Biomedical Engineering
University of Buffalo

Porphyrin-Phospholipid Liposomes for Drug and Antigen Delivery

Porphyrins are distinguished for their unique light-absorbing properties and their capacity for chelating metals in the macrocycle center. We have found that porphyrin-phospholipid (PoP) conjugates can self-assemble into liposome structures and behave generally like conventional phospholipids with respect to incorporating stably in bilayers. However, several additional functional properties are conferred to the resulting liposomes, including:

1) Exposure to near infrared (NIR) light can trigger rapid permeabilization of the bilayer, depending on the liposome formulation. This results in a single-agent “chemophototherapy” treatment for potent tumor ablation of mice and rat tumors.

2) Insertion of cobalt into PoP enables seamless particleization of the liposomes with his-tagged peptides and proteins. This approach enables PoP liposomes to serve as a unique vaccine adjuvant that result in spontaneous particleization of his-tagged protein and peptide antigens. This results in potentiated antibody and cellular responses, as well as possibilities for antigen multiplexing and antigen screening.

We will discuss these two emerging and enabling research applications that make use of PoP liposomes.

About the Speaker
Jonathan F. Lovell is an Empire Innovation Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering at the State University of New York at Buffalo. He completed his M.S. in biochemistry at McMaster University and his Ph.D. in biomedical engineering from the University of Toronto. His work has been recognized with several distinctions including the NIH Early Independence Award (2013), the Biomedical Engineering Society Young Investigator Award (2015), an NSF CAREER award (2016), the young investigator award from the Society of Porphyrins and Phthalocyanines (2018), the Basic PDT Research award from the International Photodynamic Association (2019) and the ETH Pharmaceutical Science Lectureship (2020). His research interests center around developing new tools to treat or prevent disease.

This Event is For: Public