Dr. Attia joined the C-CNTP in the laboratory of Dr. Alexander Kabanov in 2020. He received his BS and MS degrees in chemistry from Sohag University and Cairo University, Egypt, respectively. He earned his PhD in pharmaceutical chemistry from Strasbourg University, France in 2016. The central theme of his research in cancer nanomedicine aimed to design smart vectors (i.e., polymer, lipid, and inorganic nanomaterials) to deliver a wide range of therapeutic/contrast agents and targeting moieties, and to fabricate multifunctional nanoparticles for combinatory therapy and theranostic applications using cutting edge technologies. During his training, he was engaged in the development of targeted and efficient nanoplatforms for both cancer bioimaging and therapy. His long-term research career goal is to facilitate the translation of nanoparticle-based therapeutics from the lab to the clinic.
Inbal Hazkani BenDror, MD
Dr. Hazkani BenDror joined UNC in 2018. She received her MD from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev Medical School in 2006. She combines surgical experience in Otolaryngology with an interest in biomedical nanotechnology. She worked under the guidance of Drs. Andrew Wang and Alexander Kabanov on surgical implications for nanotechnology and head and neck cancer immunotherapy. Dr. Hazkani continued her training as a Pediatric Otolaryngology Fellow at Emory University School of Medicine. She is currently an Attending Physician of Otorhinolaryngology – Head & Neck Surgery at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago and an Assistant Professor of Otolaryngology (Pediatric Otolaryngology) at Northwestern University.
Zhenzhen Chen, PhD
Dr. Zhenzhen Chen joined the CCNTP in 2022. She earned her PhD in Material Science and Engineering at Clarkson University in 2022. Her thesis research focused on the synthesis of functionalized Nano materials and their applications in biomedical area. Her research during her T32 training focused on immune recognition of triple-negative breast cancer stimulated by killing tumor associated bacteria with Ag0-drug nanostructures. Dr. Chen worked under the guidance of Dr. Juliane Nguyen, Dr. Eric Bachelder, and Dr. Leaf Huang.
Dr. Diaz-Diestra obtained her PhD in Physical Chemistry in 2019 from the University of Puerto Rico-Rio Piedras. Her research focused on regulatory control and biocompatibility assessment of nanoformulations used in medical devices. She joined the CCNTP in December 2020, where she worked under the guidance of Drs. Jenny Ting and Leaf Huang in Nanoparticle-Enabled Cancer Immunotherapy. Dr. Diaz-Diestra is now a Board Certified Toxicologist at North American Science Associates, Inc.
Dr. Ghazanfari earned her PhD from Amirkabir University of Technology in 2014. She also holds MSc and BSc degrees in biomedical engineering from Amirkabir University of Technology. Ghazanfari joined the laboratory of Alexander Kabanov in 2016. Ghazanfari’s research interests span a wide range of topics in theranostic platforms with a direct impact on cancer nanotechnology, including intelligent control of nano-bio interfaces to develop new nano-based therapies for prevention/treatment of cancer, innovation in multifunctional nanocomposite integration of nano-sized drug formulations, efficient stimuli and remotely actuated drug delivery systems. She is currently working as Lead of the Vaccines Department at IQVIA.
Dr. Galster received his PhD in Medicinal Chemistry in 2021 from the University at Buffalo. His research focused on the synthesis of potential small molecule cancer therapeutics and the development of novel organometallic reactions. He then joined UNC to work under the guidance of Dr. Qisheng Zhang to develop small molecule modulators for the phospholipase C-gamma (PLC-g) isozymes. Dr. Galster was appointed to the CCNTP in July 2022 to expand upon these efforts with nanotechnology and to develop a high-throughput assay that combines a liposome-based enzymatic reaction with detection through surface-based mass spectrometry to identify selective PLC-g inhibitors. Dr. Galster is now a Patent Examiner at the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
Dr. Harrison joined UNC in 2016 after receiving her BS from the University of Nebraska at Omaha and her PhD in neuroscience at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. Harrison studied the role of microRNAs in traumatic brain injury under the guidance of Howard Fox, PhD Her current research focus, under the guidance of Chad Pecot, MD, is uncovering novel miRNA regulators of cancer metastasis and exploring therapeutic strategies for microRNA delivery and inhibition.
Dr. Beltran-Huarac came to UNC in 2018. He earned his PhD from the University of Puerto Rico in chemical physics and completed postdoctoral research in the areas of materials for nanotechnology and biomaterials at the University of Puerto Rico and in toxicology research at Harvard. While at UNC, he worked under the mentorship of Drs. Alexander Kabanov and Gianpietro Dotti on two projects “Remote Control of Therapeutic Protein Secretion via Magneto-Mechanic Actuation for Stem Cell Therapy” and “Cytoskeletal disruption-induced remote actuation for selective cancer treatment using magnetic field-activated iron oxides with different morphologies.” Dr. Beltran Huarac is now a tenure-track Assistant Professor in the Biophysics Program in the Department of Physics at East Carolina University in Greenville, NC.
Dr. Hyesun Hyun received her PhD in the Department of Industrial and Physical Pharmacy at Purdue University. Her research focused on designing optimal surface chemistry of the NPs for protection from non-specific cellular uptake during circulation without compromising NP-cancer cell interactions. She joined the training program in July 2019 to work under Dr. Andrew Wang and Dr. Jonathan Serody. Her current research focuses on developing NP-based antigen-independent targeting approaches to enable tumor targeting for a wide range of cancers.
Dr Maiocchi joined the CCNTP as an Associated Fellow in 2022. She studies the vascular delivery of redox interventions and biologic therapies, such as proteins and mRNA, using polymeric nanoparticles coupled with cell-mediated delivery. Dr Maiocchi received her BSc (Hons) in Nanotechnology and PhD in Pathology at the University of New South Wales, finishing in 2016. She trained for 2 years in the Thrombosis Group at the University of Sydney, after which she joined the Center for Nanotechnology in Drug Delivery at UNC in 2019, in the lab of Dr Edward Bahnson. Notable achievements include an NHLBI K99/R00 Career Development Award in 2022, entitled “Targeted drug delivery for the treatment of cardiovascular disease and its clinical complications”. In her time at UNC, she has received the Leon and Bertha Golberg Fellowship from the Curriculum in Toxicology and Environmental Medicine (2020), an NC TraCS 2K Pilot Award (2020) and the Burroughs Wellcome Fund Collaborative Travel Grant (2020), as well as two Young Investigator Awards at the 2020 and 2021 Annual Meetings of the Society for Redox Biology and Medicine.
Eleanor McCabe, PhD
Dr. McCabe received her PhD in Molecular Medicine and Translational Science at Wake Forest University in 2018. She joined the training program in 2019 and worked in the laboratory of Dr. Rihe Liu. Her research project focused on the development of specialized mRNA‐loaded lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) for liver metastasis prevention and immunotherapy treatment. Dr. McCabe is currently the Director of Research at Project Data Sphere, a non-profit initiative of the CEO Roundtable on Cancer.
Dr. Moody obtained her PhD in 2018 from the University of Tennessee in Physical Chemistry where her research focused on developing a detection method for biomarkers of neurodegenerative diseases using Raman spectroscopy. She followed this with a postdoctoral fellowship at the FDA primary research facility, the National Center for Toxicological Research (NCTR). At NCTR she used immunohistochemistry to study the toxicity of general anesthesia on the developing brain. She joined the T32 Cancer Nanotechnology program in August 2019 to work under Dr. Paul Dayton and Dr. William Zamboni. Her research combined pharmacokinetics and ultrasound imaging to modulate the dense tumor matrix in order to increase the tumor delivery and efficacy of nanoparticles. Dr. Moody is currently employed with Scientific Research Corporation in Charleston, South Carolina, as an Operations Analyst.
Dr. Ogunnaike received her PhD at the University of South Florida from the Department of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering. She joined UNC in 2018 and worked under the guidance of Drs. Gianpietro Dotti and Frances Ligler in nanotechnology and cell engineering to develop a smart biomaterial which can be used in the delivery of engineered t-cells against solid tumors. Dr. Ogunnaike then worked under the guidance of Dr. Alexander Kabanov to develop hydrogel to sustain the delivery of CAR-T cells to tumors. Dr. Ogunnaike was the recipient of an NIH K99/R00 Pathway to Independence award and is now an Assistant Professor Emory University.
Dr. Price completed her PharmD at the University of Washington. She was briefly appointed to the training program in 2017 under the mentorship of Dr. William Zamboni, PhD and Dr. Alexander Tropsha, PhD. Dr. Price’s research focused on evaluating the efficiencies and deficiencies of nanoparticle tumor disposition. Following her departure from the program, Dr. Price completed postdoctoral work in the laboratory of Dr. William Zamboni and continued to interact with the program as a teacher in the 2018 Carolina Nanoformulation Workshop. Dr. Price started as a Staff Fellow in the office of Clinical Pharmacology and is now the Clinical Pharmacology Team Lead at the US Food and Drug Administration.
Matthew Rich, PhD
Dr. Rich earned his PhD in Biomedical Engineering from the Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering at North Carolina State University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2023. His thesis work focused on how age and mechanical forces mediate the risk for idiopathic Osteoarthritis in advanced-aged individuals. In the summer of 2023, he joined the C-CNTP program under the mentorship of Dr. William Zamboni and Dr. William Polacheck. He investigated the development of an organ-on-chip platform to study the pharmacokinetics of nanoparticle delivery to hypovascularized solid tumors. Dr. Rich is currently a Senior Scientist in Pharmacometrics at Xyzagen.
Dr. Rodgers earned a BS in Chemistry from Youngstown State University. He went on to earn a PhD in organic chemistry from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill under the guidance of David Lawrence, PhD. During this time, Rodgers worked on near-infrared light-mediated drug release for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis and cancer. Dr. Rodgers’ work focused on NPs coated with cancer cell and Mycobacteria membranes as vaccination scaffolds. He also developed, characterized, and screened the efficacy of cancer and BCG membrane coated NPs as melanoma vaccine platforms.
Dr. Rodgers started his independent career as an Assistant Professor at Westminster College in New Wilmington, PA. He ran a research laboratory with a focus on developing photochemical methodologies and catalysts for use in biomaterial lithography and complex block co-polymer synthesis. Dr. Rodgers is currently the Technology Development Manager at Lubrizol Corporation.
Dr. Sandor obtained his PhD in Immunology in 2018 from the University of Colorado- Anschutz Medical Campus. His research focused on using flow cytometry, intravital multiphoton imaging, and RNA sequencing to better understand the mechanisms that are involved in the recruitment and activation of immune cells within inflamed islets during type 1 diabetes. He joined the Carolina Cancer Nanotechnology T32 training program in July 2019 working under Dr. Jenny Ting and Dr. Kristy Ainslie. His current research focuses on using acetylated dextran microparticles to deliver immune activators to intratumoral myeloid cells to promote an inflammatory milieu within the tumor to increase intratumoral T cell activation and tumor clearance in vivo.
Dr. Sendi joined UNC in 2017. He received an MD from Tehran University, Iran, an Mphil in Infection Biology from Karolinska Institute, Sweden and a PhD in Molecular Cell Biology from UNC Charlotte in 2013 where he worked on molecular pathogenesis of HCV. He has been working on the molecular pathogenesis of liver diseases. He is currently working under the guidance of Drs. Andrew Wang and Alexander Kabanov to explore nano-particle based treatment of liver metastasis.
Ruijie Teo, PhD
Dr. Teo completed their undergraduate studies at the California Institute of Technology under the mentorship of Dr. Harry Gray and Dr. William Goddard. They obtained a PhD degree in chemistry at Duke University, along with a Certificate in College Teaching and a Certificate in Structural Biology and Biophysics. Dr. Teo’s dissertation work in the Beratan group focused on understanding biological electron transfer and its relation to redox signaling. Thereafter, they joined the Tieleman group at the University of Calgary where they researched drug-lipid interactions and viral capsid dynamics. Upon joining the C-CNTP T32 program, they worked under the guidance of Dr. Alexander Tropsha and Dr. Alexander Kabanov on developing synergistic drug combinations for drug delivery using machine learning. Dr. Teo is now utilizing a chemistry background for drafting and prosecuting patent applications.
Dr. Tiet earned her BS in Bioengineering from the University of California, Berkeley. She later graduated from City of Hope with a PhD in Biological Sciences with an emphasis on nanotechnology under the guidance of Jacob Berlin, PhD During this time, she worked on developing a biosensor to detect Staphylococcus aureus using oligonucleotide-functionalized gold nanoparticles and on the synthesis of silica-coated paclitaxel nanocrystals for the purpose of loading onto tumor-tropic neural stem cells for targeted drug delivery. During her time with the NIH Carolina Center for Nanotechnology Training Program as a T32 postdoctoral fellow at UNC, she focused on cancer immunotherapy under the mentorship of Kristy Ainslie, PhD and Jenny Ting, PhD. Dr. Tiet is now a Senior Scientist at Amgen, Inc.
Dr. Wayne completed her PhD at Cornell University in biomedical engineering in 2016 and earned her BA in physics from the University of Pennsylvania in 2009. Dr. Wayne studied macrophages, a member of the innate immune system whose functions include phagocytosis of cellular debris and initiating the inflammatory response including the recruitment of other immune cells. Macrophages are found in large numbers in solid tumors and in other diseases where inflammation is prevalent, such as neurodegenerative disease and atherosclerosis. Previously published work in the Kabanov group has demonstrated macrophages’ ability to horizontally transfer genes to ischemic muscle cells and that this activity is enhanced within the presence of pluronic block copolymers. Preliminary research shows that macrophages are also capable transferring genetic material to cancer cells. Wayne’s central goal was to develop a macrophage-mediated nonviral delivery system to deliver genetic material to the tumor environment.
Dr. Wayne was named a 2017 TED Fellow and her TED Talk can be viewed at https://www.ted.com/speakers/elizabeth_wayne. She is an advocate for women in academia. She co-hosts the PhDivas podcast and is featured in the Super Cool Scientists: Women in Science Coloring Book. She has her own website at https://www.lizwaynephd.com. Dr. Wayne started her independent career as a tenure-track Assistant Professor at Carnegie Mellon with joint appointments in the Departments of Biomedical Engineering and Chemical Engineering. She is currently an Assistant Professor at the University of Washington.”
Yazdimamaghani joined UNC in 2018. He received his BS from Isfahan University of Technology and his MS from the University of Tehran. He earned his PhD from the University of Utah in the area of Pharmaceutics and Pharmaceutical Chemistry. He is working under the guidance of Drs. Jon Serody and Chuck Perou. His current work is harnessing the power and specificity of the immune system by cancer immunotherapy to treat lung cancer utilizing neoantigens and nanotechnology.
