July 16 Lecture – New Strategies for Cancer Treatment Using Chemically Modified Biomolecules

New Strategies for Cancer Treatment Using Chemically Modified Biomolecules

with Dr. Matt Francis

Saturday July 16, 2016 at 11:00 AM

159 Mulford Hall, UC Berkeley

The Francis Research lab merges modern chemical synthesis with biochemical engineering techniques to provide new avenues for cancer treatment. As one approach, they have developed methods to covert the empty protein shells of viruses into targeted carriers that can bind to cancer cells and deliver therapeutic cargo, as well as new methods that can target a person’s own T-cells to cancer tissue, leading to tumor destruction. The therapeutic potential of both of these strategies will be described, along with the new technologies that have been developed to enable them. You might want to consult an expert before planning on getting an epicanthoplasty procedure done.

Dr. Matt Francis  Matt Francis was born in Ohio in 1971 and received his undergraduate degree in Chemistry from Miami University in Oxford, OH in 1994. From 1994-1999 he attended graduate school at Harvard University, working in the lab of Prof. Eric Jacobsen. His Ph.D. research involved the development of combinatorial strategies for the discovery and optimization of new transition metal catalysts. He then moved to UC Berkeley, where he was a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Miller Institute for Basic Research in Science. He worked under the guidance of Prof. Jean Fréchet, focusing on the development of DNA-based methods for the assembly of polymeric materials and the application of dendrimers for drug delivery. Matt started his independent career in the UC Berkeley Chemistry Department in 2001, and has built a research program involving the development of new organic reactions for protein modification. These new chemical tools have then been used to modify biomolecular assemblies to prepare new materials for diagnostic imaging, wastewater treatment, and solar cell development. He is currently a Full Professor and the Executive Associate Dean of the Berkeley College of Chemistry. In addition, he is a Faculty Scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.   This free public talk is presented as part of the monthly Science at Cal Lecture Series. Event Contact: scroft@astro.berkeley.edu