Turn ON Tumor Contrast by Amplifying Microenvironment Signals
Jinming Gao, Ph.D.
Department of Pharmacology, Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center
University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas
Abstract: Rapid advances in cancer biology have produced many exploitable targets for personalized diagnosis and therapy of cancer. Achieving high cancer specificity has been the main challenge for any diagnostic or therapeutic platforms. In this presentation, I will discuss a new direction in the lab on the design and development of imaging nanoprobes with ON/OFF activatable mechanisms to non-linearly amplify patho-physiological signals in the tumor microenvironment for cancer-specific imaging.
Biosketch: Dr. Jinming Gao received his B.S. degree in Chemistry at Peking University (Beijing, China) in June 1991. He carried out graduate studies at Harvard University under the supervision of George Whitesides. In May 1996, he received a Ph.D. degree in Medicinal Chemistry. Following his doctoral studies, he completed his postdoctoral training in Biomedical Engineering under Bob Langer at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In August 1998, Dr. Gao joined the faculty of Biomedical Engineering at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. He was promoted to Associate Professor with tenure of Biomedical Engineering and Radiology in April 2004. In July 2005, Dr. Gao moved his lab to Dallas, Texas, where he is currently a Professor of Oncology and Pharmacology at UT Southwestern Medical Center with a joint appointment in the Departments of Chemistry and Bioengineering at UT Dallas. Dr. Gao has published over 90 peer reviewed papers, 50 conference proceedings and five book chapters. He is currently serving as the Associate Editor for Experimental Biology and Medicine and on the editorial boards of Theranostics. Using a highly-interdisciplinary approach, his lab is focused on development of multi-functional nanomedicine platforms that incorporate tumor targeting, imaging ultrasensitivity, and controlled drug release for cancer-targeted therapy.