The AAPS Foundation is pleased to announce the 2016 New Investigator Grant recipient, Yizhou Dong, Ph.D of the Ohio State University, for his research entitled "Development of nonviral gene-engineering delivery systems". The AAPS Foundation New Investigator Grant is a $40,000 USD award given to an assistant faculty member at a U.S. institution to help support their research efforts. The AAPS Foundation received 24 applications for this prestigious award.
"I'm certain that the future of the pharmaceutical sciences is in great hands," said Phil Mayer, Ph.D., Past Chair, AAPS Foundation. "Our new investigators, including AAPS Foundation award winner Yizhou Dong, Ph.D., have novel research ideas which can only lead to better treatment of human disease."
Nearly 240 million people are infected worldwide with Hepatitis B virus (HBV), and more than 780,000 people die every year due to complications of the disease. This viral infection attacks the liver and is spread through contact with bodily fluids or blood.
"We hypothesize that the direct cleavage of the Hepatitis B virus (HBV) genome is a superior strategy for HBV therapy," noted Dong. "The goal of this project is to develop non-viral gene-engineering nanotherapeutics in order to eradicate the HBV genome from infected hepatocytes. Through designing such a platform, we aim to achieve a cure for Hepatitis B. This research will have broad impacts on drug delivery and therapeutic applications."
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