Chemistry Seminar: Dr. Yang Li

The Department of Chemistry in the College of Arts and Sciences is pleased to welcome Dr. Yang Li, a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Boston Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School.

The seminar will be held on Zoom. Please email chemistry@syr.edu for Zoom info.

Title: Bioinspired and Biomimetic Drug Delivery Systems

Abstract

Drug delivery systems aim to enhance the efficacy, accuracy, safety, and compliance of diagnosis and treatment of diseases by leveraging the unique properties of synthetic or engineered biomaterials. Biological macromolecules like lipids and proteins are highly optimized for their specific functions and possess features that are desired in drug carriers. I have been developing synthetic drug delivery systems by mimicking how biological macromolecules interact and communicate with living entities. Optimization of appropriate design parameters addresses the physicochemical limitations of free drugs, augments the therapeutic efficiency, and minimizes undesired side effects. Mechanistic investigation of these synthetic drug carriers has contributed to the fundamental understanding of the physicochemical properties of drugs, dosage forms, and delivery systems, which leads to the clinical translation of essential scientific findings at the bench-side into potential technologies for the diagnosis and treatment of cancer.