{"id":220354,"date":"2024-10-29T07:15:41","date_gmt":"2024-10-29T11:15:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=220354"},"modified":"2024-10-24T09:03:08","modified_gmt":"2024-10-24T13:03:08","slug":"biomedical-engineering-scientist-receives-1-5-million-general-medicine-grant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2024\/10\/biomedical-engineering-scientist-receives-1-5-million-general-medicine-grant\/","title":{"rendered":"Biomedical Engineering Scientist Receives $1.5 Million General Medicine Grant"},"content":{"rendered":"

An accomplished bioengineering researcher at UConn\u2019s College of Engineering (CoE) has received a $1.5 million National Institute of Health grant for his pioneering work in the field of computation-aided molecular design of DNA-inspired Janus Base Nanopieces (JBNps). These are a family of novel biomaterials that mimic DNA and are used in therapeutic and regenerative treatments for people with arthritis, cancer, and neurological diseases.<\/p>\n

\u201cJBNps have a distinct advantage for delivery into \u2018hard-to-penetrate\u2019 tissues such as articular cartilage, solid tumors, kidneys and the central nervous system,\u201d says Biomedical Engineering Associate Professor Yupeng Chen. \u201cThe impact in treatments will be significant.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chen is the principal investigator and grant recipient, and is studying the impact of manipulating Messenger RNA (mRNA), a molecule that carries the genetic instructions from DNA in the cell nucleus to the ribosomes in the cytoplasm, where those instructions are used to build proteins.<\/p>\n

Essentially, Chen explains, mRNA acts like a \u201cmessage carrier\u201d to tell the cell which proteins to make.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will develop a novel delivery technology by manipulating the bio-interface properties of the DNA-inspired Janus Base Nanopieces,\u201d Chen says. \u201cJBNps are slimmer than conventional spherical particles, allowing for enhanced infiltration into tissue matrices and barriers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Messenger RNA, Chen adds, is the key ingredient in COVID-19 vaccines and anti-inflammatory drugs and offers the potential for myriad other applications. But there are numerous obstacles to overcome, he states. Unlike many chemical molecules or antibody proteins, mRNAs need to be delivered into cell cytoplasm to be functional. Various types of materials have been developed for successful intracellular delivery of small RNAs, but it is still a major challenge to achieve effective delivery of mRNAs at both cellular and systemic levels.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Yupeng Chen (photo by Christopher LaRosa)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Chen cites the study of arthritis as an example. Infiltrating articular cartilage, he says, poses a significant delivery challenge because its matrix has minuscule pore sizes. As a result, no disease-modifying drug exists to treat this condition. JBNps, he explains are smaller and more effectively shaped than the formulations currently being used. They are manufactured through the non-covalent assembly of Janus Bases, allowing researchers to control their formulations and properties by simply mixing different types of Janus Bases.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor instance, we can use sidechain-modified Janus Bases for endosomal escape, zwitterion-modified ones for improved biodistribution, and unmodified Janus Bases as the basic building blocks for mRNA loading,\u201d Chen says. \u201cAdditionally, focusing on molecule-linked Janus bases can be used for tissue targeting. In this way, JBNps can be easily tailored for a variety of purposes. We expect to develop sidechain-modified JBNps for the most effective mRNA delivery to treat cartilage diseases such as arthritis.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last year, Chen and a student team received international notoriety when NASA astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) conducted an inflight, microgravity proof-of-concept study involving the fabrication of JBNps. During their experimentation, the astronauts communicated directly with Chen and some of his students via Axiom Space and Eascra Biotech as implementation and industry partners at their lab on the UConn campus in Storrs, Connecticut.<\/p>\n

During the course of this four-year grant, Chen will be working with Dr. Ying Li from the University of Wisconsin, an expert in multiscale computational modeling and machine learning; and Dr. Harvey Lodish from MIT, who will provide expertise in cell and RNA biology and therapeutic development. Their proposal, he adds, is built on successful preliminary results and recent publication in high-impact journals such as in PNAS, Science Advances, Angewandte Chemie, ACS Nano, Advanced Functional Materials, Biomaterials, Computational Mechanics, and others.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

UConn researcher focuses on effective biomedicine delivery methods designed for therapeutic and regenerative treatments for people with arthritis, cancer, tumors and neurological diseases<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":150,"featured_media":220355,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1866,2460,2076,2235],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[2315],"class_list":["post-220354","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-engr","category-faculty","category-research","category-today-homepage"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-06 15:41:09","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220354","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/150"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=220354"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220354\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":220376,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220354\/revisions\/220376"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/220355"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=220354"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=220354"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=220354"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=220354"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=220354"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}