February 20, 2024
Yevgeny (Yev) Brudno, Ph.D., joined the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy as an associate professor in the Division of Pharmacoengineering and Molecular Pharmaceutics (DPMP) in January after serving as adjunct faculty for six years. He also holds an appointment in the joint department of biomedical engineering at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and North Carolina State University.
“I’m excited to work with friends and colleagues at the school of pharmacy to bring potent and affordable therapies to patients both in the U.S. and around the world,” said Brudno.
Brudno received dual degrees in chemistry and biophysics with minors in math and philosophy from the University of Pennsylvania and his Ph.D. in organic chemistry from Harvard University, where he worked to develop directed evolution technologies. He then worked as a postdoctoral fellow at the Wyss Institute at Harvard, developing controlled release drug delivery technologies for cancer and regenerative medicine.
His research interests span organic synthetic chemistry, materials science and cellular immunotherapy. Mostly recently, his lab developed materials to significantly reduce the effort and costs of cell therapies such as CAR T cells, which are cells that are genetically engineered in a lab in order to fight cancer. Brudno’s research is rooted in the belief that advances in chemistry and the basic molecular sciences can generate meaningful change in how therapies are designed, produced and administered.
“Yev is a distinguished and rising star in the field of biomedical engineering, creating innovative platforms for the development of drug reservoirs and biomaterials for CAR T cell generation,” said Kristy Ainslie, Ph.D., Fred Eshelman Distinguished Professor and chair of DPMP. “His groundbreaking work has the potential to revolutionize cancer immunotherapy and is already being translated into a lab-based platform for CAR T cell production. He has demonstrated excellence in research, teaching and service, as evidenced by his publications, awards and involvement in the division as an adjunct faculty for the last several years.”
In 2022 he received several awards from NC State including University Faculty Scholar, the Goodnight Early Career Innovator Award, the Chancellor Innovation Award and the Alumni Outstanding Teacher Award.
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