RESEARCH

Biomaterials are of vast interest in medicine and drug delivery. Target-specific delivery refers to transporting therapeutic agents to specific locations in the body while minimizing the impact on healthy tissues. Biomaterials play a crucial role in target-specific delivery. They are designed to possess specific properties and functionalities that enable efficient and targeted drug delivery, such as controlled release, protection, and stabilization of therapeutic molecules, improved pharmacokinetics, enhanced specificity, combinational therapies, and personalized medicine. We aim to discover new biomaterials with such properties for developing innovative delivery vectors that can improve the efficacy, safety, and precision of therapeutic interventions. 

The complexity of nanoscale interactions between biomaterials and cells has limited the realization of the ultimate vision of nanotechnology in diagnostics and therapeutics. As such, significant effort has been devoted to advancing our understanding of the biophysical interactions of the myriad nanoparticles. Particularly, gene therapy requires highly precise delivery, necessitating the cell-specific endocytosis and the subsequent endosomal escape to exert biological effects. Unfortunately, the mechanisms underlying such processes are limitedly understood. We aim to dissect these intricate machinery and, therefore, advance endosomal escape elucidation for developing more potent gene therapy vectors.