The Laboratory of Nanomedicine and Immunoengineering was established in the fall of 2019 at the University of Kentucky. Our research spans across the expansive domains of nanobiotechnology, genome editing, immunoengineering, and cancer therapy. With a focus on interdisciplinary collaboration and the integration of state-of-the-art methodologies, we strive to unravel the mysteries of disease processes and design targeted interventions that hold promise for transformative medical breakthroughs.

News:

• Our lab's research team, ARENEX, is the winner of the Phase I competition of the NIH TARGETED (Targeted Genome Editor Delivery) Challenge! This is a 3 phase NIH competition supported by the Common Fund's Somatic Cell Genome Editing (SCGE) program. In vivo therapeutic gene editing encounters a significant obstacle due to the off-target activities of the CRISPR system. To tackle this challenge, the NIH initiated a $6 million initiative aimed at developing targeted delivery systems for genome editors to somatic cells within the body. This initiative encompasses two specific target areas: 1) the creation of programmable delivery systems capable of delivering genome editing machinery to target specific tissues or cell types, and 2) the development of highly efficient non-viral delivery systems with the ability to traverse the blood-brain barrier (BBB) and deliver genome editing machinery to a substantial proportion of clinically relevant cell types in the central nervous system (CNS). Among the phase I winners in target area two, our team stands out alongside counterparts from institutions such as Yale, Cornell, and Columbia (Link).

Representative publications:

• Zhongchao Yi, Xiaoyue Yang, Ying Liang, Fanny Chapelin, and Sheng Tong. Enhancing ROS-inducing nanozyme through intraparticle electron transport. Small, 20, e2305974, 2024.
• Sheng Tong*, Buhle Moyo*, Ciaran M. Lee, Kam Leong, and Gang Bao. Engineered materials for in vivo delivery of genome editing machinery. Nature Reviews Materials, 4, 726-737, 2019.
• Haibao Zhu*, Linlin Zhang*, Sheng Tong*, Ciaran Lee, Harshavardhan Deshmukh, and Gang Bao. Spatial control of in vivo CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing via nanomagnets. Nature Biomedical Engineering. 3, 126-136, 2019.
• Sheng Tong, Christopher Quinto, Priya Mohindra, Linlin Zhang, and Gang Bao. Size-Dependent heating of magnetic iron oxide nanoparticles. ACS Nano, 11, 6808-6816, 2017.
• Yongzhi Qiu*, Sheng Tong*, Linlin Zhang, Yumiko Sakurai, David R. Myers, Lin Hong, Wilbur Lam, and Gang Bao. Magnetic forces enable controlled drug-delivery by disrupting endothelial cell-cell junctions. Nature Communication, 8, 15994, 2017.
• For more information, see Research and Publications.