Oxidative Stress Regulating Engineered Polymers for the Treatment of Cancer and Inflammatory Diseases

Time: Monday, July 14, 2014 - 4:00pm - 5:00pm
Type: Seminar Series
Presenter: Dongwon Lee; Department of BIN Fusion Technology; Department of Polymer-Nano Science and Technology, Chonbuk National University
Room/Office: Room 115
Location:
17 Hillhouse Ave New Haven, CT
United States

Department of Biomedical Engineering Special Seminar

"Oxidative Stress Regulating Engineered Polymers for the Treatment of Cancer and Inflammatory Diseases"

Dongwon Lee
Department of BIN Fusion Technology,
Department of Polymer-Nano Science and Technology
Chonbuk National University, Jeonju, Korea

Abstract: The overproduction of reactive oxygen species (ROS) causes oxidative stress, resulting in significant damages to cell structures such as lipid, DNA and proteins despite their essential roles in cell signaling. In particular, hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) plays a key role as a second messenger in normal cellular signaling, but its overexpression of H2O2 leads to oxidative damages to tissues and organs and has been implicated in inflammatory responses and various life-threatening diseases. In addition, various chemotherapeutic agents induce the production of H2O2 which causes apoptotic cancer cell death. Therefore, H2O2 has great potential as a diagnostic and therapeutic biomarker of inflammatory diseases and cancer.

In our laboratory, we have been developing a series of polymeric prodrugs using antioxidant and anti-inflammatory agents which are major active components in herbal agents. The antioxidant and anti-inflammatory polymer prodrug nanoparticles exert highly potent therapeutic activity in a mouse model of allergic asthma, liver failure, ischemia/reperfusion injury and doxorubicin-induced cardiomyopathy. We have also developed a series of novel anticancer prodrugs which are activated in tumor environments and amplify oxidative stress to kill cancer cells. In this presentation, novel antioxidant and anticancer polymeric prodrugs are discussed with emphases of rational design and proof-of-concept studies in animal models.

Dongwon Lee, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor in the Department of Polymer-Nano Science and Technology and Department of BIN Fusion Technology at Chonbuk National University, Korea. He earned his Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Florida in 2004. He has worked at the University of South Florida College of Medicine and Georgia Institute of Technology as a postdoctoral fellow for 4 years. He moved back to Korea to join a faculty of Chonbuk National University in Sep. 2008. His research focuses on the development of polymeric prodrugs and multifunctional nanomaterials for bio-imaging, drug delivery and tissue engineering.

When: Monday, July 14, 2014
Place: 17 Hillhouse Ave Room 115
Time: 4PM
Hosted by: Professor Tarek Fahmy