Awarded in 2021
Home Department: Chemistry
Faculty Advisors: Robert Waymouth (Chemistry) and Ronald Levy (Medicine—Oncology)

Research Title: New Synthetic Transporters for Delivery and Release of mRNA

Research Description: The design, synthesis, and biological evaluation of a new class of gene delivery agents based on cationic amphiphilic oligomers is proposed by Yuan. The design of these materials is inspired by the Charge-altering Releasable Transporters (CARTs) developed at Stanford, but targets different mechanisms for the intracellular release and endosomal escape of the mRNA. Preliminary results on the delivery of mRNA encoding firefly luciferase indicate that one of these new classes of gene delivery agents is effective both in cell culture and in live mice.