Wednesday, May 06, 2020 11:00AM

May 6, 2020 | 11AM-12PM | Spring 2020 NANOFANS Webinar Series - “Nanotechnology in Infectious Diseases (Diagnostics/Therapeutics)”: Session 2 - “RNA-based Drugs for Treating Influenza and SARS-CoV-2”

Philip Santangelo, Professor of Biomedical Engineering; Georgia Institute of Technology

"Spring 2020 NanoFANS (Focusing on Advanced Nanobio- Systems) program will be offered in a weekly webinar format during the month of May. The focus of this event will be “Nanotechnology in Infectious Diseases (Diagnostics/Therapeutics).”

In the current global pandemic situation, infectious diseases are the leading cause of mortality worldwide, with viruses such as, ebola, SARS-Cov, SARS-Cov-2 in particular, making global impact on healthcare and socio-economic development. The rapid development of drug resistance to currently available therapies and associated side effects leads to serious public health concern; hence, devising novel treatment strategies is of paramount importance. The application of nanotechnology in infectious diseases is fast-revolutionizing the biomedical field and the healthcare sector and has a potential to diagnose, treat and prevent diseases."

Abstract: RNA-based drugs for treating influenza and SARS-CoV-2 will be discussed. In particular, I’ll talk about why we make drugs based on synthetic mRNA and why RNA based drugs make sense for treating infections. In addition, I’ll discuss how my lab has been using mRNA-based Cas13 to target and mitigate influenza virus A (IAV) and SARS-CoV-2. I’ll discuss how we have made strides towards a pan-influenza treatment and show significant mitigation of SARS-CoV-2 in vitro. Last, I’ll talk about how we administer these drugs in vivo and preliminary data demonstrating function.

Bio: Dr. Philip J. Santangelo is a Professor in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering. He graduated from Polytechnic University (NY) in 1991 with a B.S. in Aerospace Engineering. In 1998, he obtained his Ph.D. in Engineering from the University of California at Davis under Dr. Ian Kennedy, on the development of laser-based diagnostics for multiphase reacting jets and droplet streams. Dr. Santangelo followed his Ph.D. with a postdoctoral fellowship at Sandia National Laboratories in Livermore, California under Christopher Shaddix, and a position in industry, at Micron Optics, Inc., in Atlanta, Georgia. Next, Dr. Santangelo returned to academia as a postdoctoral fellow and then as a research faculty member at Georgia Tech under Dr. Gang Bao. In 2007 he started as an Assistant Professor in BME and was promoted with tenure in 2013 to Associate Professor and is a professor currently. Dr. Santangelo’s current research focuses on the development of imaging and detection technology for the study of RNA regulation and the pathogenesis of RNA viruses.

Registration Link: https://tinyurl.com/nanofanswebinar

Event Address: Webinar link will be sent to all those registered prior to the event