Dear AAPS Community Members,
The AAPS Nanotechnology Community, in collaboration with the Gene Therapy Community and the Lipid-Based Drug Delivery Systems Community, is pleased to invite you to an exceptional webinar: Design of Lipid Nanoparticles to Enable Gene Therapies
Speaker: Pieter Cullis, PhD, FRSC, FRS, OC
Professor, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of British Columbia
📅 Date: Tuesday, September 23, 2025
⏰ Time: 12:30–2:00 PM ET
Dr. Pieter Cullis is a globally recognized pioneer in lipid nanoparticle (LNP) technology whose work underpins many of today’s RNA-based vaccines and gene therapies.
Registration is free and open to all members.
Register here
We look forward to your participation in this exciting event, which brings together expertise from across the AAPS community to explore the future of gene therapy and nanomedicine.
Organized by:
· AAPS Nanotechnology Community
· AAPS Gene Therapy Community
· AAPS Lipid-Based Drug Delivery Systems Community
Abstract
|
Delivery of nucleic acid-based drugs into target cells in vivo has been a major challenge for enabling gene therapies. This barrier is now being overcome due in part to advances made in lipid nanoparticle (LNP) delivery systems. LNP systems enable the mRNA COVID-19 vaccines and there are a host of LNP RNA vaccines and therapeutics in clinical development. Advantages of LNP RNA systems over other delivery vectors include safety, ability to re-dose, essentially unlimited genetic cargo, ease of design, straightforward manufacturing processes, lower cost, and potential for highly personalized targeted therapeutics that can be developed in a matter of weeks. In this talk I will discuss the evolution of lipid nanoparticles and lead examples of therapeutic applications of LNP RNA systems to treat cancer, cardiovascular disease and rare diseases.
Biography
Pieter R. Cullis, Professor, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of British Columbia. Dr. Cullis and co-workers have been responsible for fundamental advances in the development of nanomedicines employing lipid nanoparticle (LNP) technology for cancer therapies, gene therapies and vaccines. This work has contributed to five drugs that have been approved by the FDA, the EMA and other regulatory bodies. These include Onpattro (the first RNAi drug to receive regulatory approval) to treat the previously fatal hereditary condition transthyretin-induced amyloidosis (hATTR), as well as Comirnaty, the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 mRNA vaccine.
Dr. Cullis has also co-founded eleven biotechnology companies that now employ over 500 people, has published over 400 scientific articles and is an inventor on over 100 patents. He co-founded two Canadian National Centre of Excellence networks, the Centre for Drug Research and Development (now AdMare) in 2004 and the NanoMedicines Innovation Network in 2019. Dr. Cullis has received many awards including the Order of Canada in 2021 and the VinFuture Prize (Vietnam), the Prince Mahidol Award (Thailand), the Gairdner International Award (Canada) and the Tang Prize (Taiwan) in 2022. Professor Cullis was made a Fellow of the Royal Society (London) in 2023 and was elected to the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame in 2024.
|
------------------------------
Mitra Mosharraf, PhD
Chair, AAPS Nanotechnology
HTD Biosystems, CSO
[email protected]
Livermore, CA
Disclaimer: Opinions expressed are solely my own and do not express the views or opinions of my employer.
------------------------------