I am an interdisciplinary investigator at the interface of biomaterials, immunology, and cancer biology. Trained as a mechanical engineer, I found a passion to apply physical forces to interrogate how cells could be perturbed to allow the intracellular delivery of macromolecules or nanoparticle-based drug and gene therapies for cancer treatment, leading to where I am today.
During my PhD in bioengineering at the University of Pennsylvania, I engineered lipid-based nanoparticles for RNA delivery for treating multiple myeloma, a blood malignancy that remains incurable. Specifically, I: (i) implemented a lipid-polymer nanoparticle platform for siRNA delivery to bone marrow endothelial cells in vivo to halt myeloma progression, (ii) developed the first-of-its-kind targeted ionizable lipid nanoparticle platform for mRNA delivery to myeloma cells in vivo for protein replacement therapy or mRNA-mediated CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing applications, and (iii) employed mRNA and lipid nanoparticle technologies to modify the surface of BCMA CAR T cells to re-direct their trafficking to the myeloma-tumor site, minimizing dose-related cytotoxic effects such as cytokine release syndrome and neurotoxicity.
Now as an National Cancer Institute K00 Postdoctoral Fellow in the Cancer Nanomedicine Lab, I aim to identify factors that allow cancer cells to differentiate and regrow post-cancer therapy. Ultimately, my goal is to leverage my expertise in nanoparticle engineering to implement smart biomaterials for therapeutic intervention.