Drug Delivery
Drug Delivery
Development of Nucleic Acid-based Drug Delivery Systems
The field of drug and gene delivery involves development and delivery of drugs, genes, and gene products that ultimately alter protein expression and function of the cells, tissues, and living organisms.
Our research group is focusing on the potential of drug delivery research areas described above. Our researchers are working on controlling the metabolism of cells using our technology based on nucleic acid engineering.
Key publications
Self-Assembled RNA Interference Microsponges for Efficient siRNA Delivery
siRNA delivery has so far been hampered by carriers that inefficiently encapsulate RNA, and by its degradation prior to cellular uptake. Now, self-assembled crystalline microsponges consisting solely of cleavable RNA strands which are converted to siRNA only after cellular uptake achieved, with three orders of magnitude lower concentration, the same degree of gene silencing as conventional siRNA nanocarriers.
Jong Bum Lee, Jinkee Hong, Daniel K. Bonner, Zhiyong Poon, Paula T. Hammond
Read more... Nature Materials, 11(4), 316-322 (2012)
BRC-mediated RNAi targeting of USE1 inhibits tumor growth in vitro and in vivo
USE1 has been demonstrated to play crucial roles in the development and progression of human lung cancer. We here synthesized USE1 targeting bubbled RNA-based cargo (BRC) composed of densely packed multimeric pre-siRNAs. These molecules effectively suppressed the transcription of their target genes, leading to tumor growth suppression in vitro and in vivo. The observed tumor cell growth suppression was found to be controlled by cell cycle arrest and apoptosis signals induced by the USE1 reduction.
Hyejin Kim, Yeon Kyung Lee, Kyung Ho Han, Hyunsu Jeon, In-ho Jeong, Sang-Yeob Kim, Jong Bum Lee, Peter C. W. Lee
Read more... Biomaterials, 230, 119630 (2020)
