Description:

Switchable Protein Polymers for Medicine and Biology

Abstract

Biology is unparalleled at generating multifunctional materials at the nanoscale. Be they enzymes, antibodies, viral capsids or organelles, no technologies yet invented mimic their functionality and small size. Based on this observation, we harness recombinant engineering of protein polymers to assemble structures with applications in disease, biosensors, and the manipulation of the cell. Protein polymers are repetitive amino acid sequences, which can be: i) expressed in cells; ii) fused to functional peptides; iii) tuned to respond to environmental cues, and iv) designed to biodegrade in biological microenvironments. As they are composed entirely from genetically engineered materials, their composition can be precisely tailored at the DNA level. In recent years, we have reported protein polymer systems with applications in cancer (positron emission tomography, antibody-mediated apoptosis, small molecule targeting), ocular disease (sustained release of mitogenic tear proteins, lacrimal gland targeting, intra-vitreal retention of anti-apoptotic peptides), and as tools to control intracellular trafficking and signaling pathways. An emerging technology, protein polymers facilitate the engineering of biomaterials with a precision ubiquitous to biological systems.

Biography

Dr. MacKay received his S.B. in chemical engineering and biology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1999. A Howard Hughes Medical Institute Predoctoral Fellow, he completed his Ph.D. at the University of California at San Francisco and Berkeley in the joint graduate group in Bioengineering in 2005. As a Kirschstein National Research Service Award Postdoctoral Fellow, Dr. Mackay studied at Duke University in the Department of Biomedical Engineering. In 2008 Dr. MacKay joined the faculty at the University of Southern California in the Departments of Pharmacology and Pharmaceutical Sciences and Biomedical Engineering. Dr. MacKay is a full member of the USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center. He has authored over 44 peer-reviewed publications. His work is supported by the US Army, NIH/NIGMS, NIH/NIBIB, NIH/NEI, StopCancer, USC Ming Hsieh Institute, and the USC Whittier Foundation. His group explores biomolecular engineering and nanomedicine.