Principal Investigator Mark Bathe
Project Start Date July 2020
Natural viruses contain proteins on their outer coat that enable them to evade the immune system, enter into cells, and integrate their genomic DNA into their host’s genome. Structured DNA nanoparticles can be used to mimic certain aspects of viruses in order to either target tissues and cells for delivery of therapeutic payloads, or activate immune cells for vaccination. In this research area we are using structured DNA and RNA nanoparticles to enable the targeted delivery of therapeutic siRNA, mRNA, and CRISPR to organs, tissues, and tumors to help find cures for genetic diseases and cancer, as well as to stimulate the immune system to make effective vaccines to protect against infectious diseases. The viral-like DNA nanoparticle shown is bearing 10 copies of an antigenic protein used for a vaccine application (the scale bar is 10nm).