Chun Wang, PhD

Associate Professor, Department of Biomedical Engineering
Chun Wang

Contact

Office Phone
612-626-3990
Office Address

7-116 Nils Hasselmo Hall
312 Church St. SE
Minneapolis, MN 55455
United States

Links:
Polymeric Biomaterials Lab website

Connect With Us

Titles

Associate Professor, Department of Biomedical Engineering
Adjunct Faculty, Department of Pharmaceutics

Education

PhD in Bioengineering, University of Utah

MS in Bioengineering, University of Utah

BS in Chemistry, Nankai University

Fellowships

National Institutes of Health (NIH) Postdoctoral Fellow, Chemical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

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Biography

Prof. Chun Wang is on the faculty of the Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Minnesota, and directs the Polymeric Biomaterials Lab at Minnesota. His past and current research covers a broad range of topics, including polymeric hydrogels, micelles, nanoparticles, biointerfaces, stimuli-responsive and biodegradable polymers for controlled release and drug delivery. He has published over 100 research articles and reviews and given over 130 invited talks. He served on the editorial board of the "Journal of Controlled Release" (2006-2016) and is currently on the boards of "Advanced Drug Delivery Reviews," "Pharmaceutics," and "Frontiers in Biomaterials Science" as the Specialty Chief Editor for "Delivery Systems and Controlled Release." He was a recipient of the NSF CAREER Award, a Wallace H. Coulter Foundation Early Career Translational Research Award, and the UMN McKnight Land-Grant Professorship. He is an inventor of multiple issued and pending patents and has co-founded Trekka Therapeutics, a startup company developing next-generation healthcare products. He received his Ph.D. in Bioengineering from the University of Utah and was an NIH NRSA Postdoctoral Fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Teaching

  • BMEN 3311/3315 (Spring) - Biomaterials/Biomaterials Lab
  • BMEN 8001 (Fall) - Polymeric Biomaterials

Research

My laboratory works on developing polymeric materials for biomedical application. We are particularly interested in the design and characterization of novel polymers to address unmet challenges in drug delivery. We currently work on the following projects:

  1. We developed “Liquid Polymer Matrices” (LPM), a unique class of biodegradable polymers that can be injected or implanted, which enables easy loading and controlled release of both hydrophobic and hydrophilic bioactive cargos as well as combination drugs. We are currently using LPM to deliver multi-component immunotherapeutics including cancer vaccines and working toward clinical translation of this technology.
  2. We developed “Oncolytic Polymers”, a new class of synthetic polymeric biomaterials with intrinsic and target-modulated toxicity toward cancer cells. We are currently attempting to elucidate its anti-tumor mechanism and to optimize its efficacy by combining with other cancer therapies.
  3. We created polymer wafers with tailored composition and structure that enable delivery of proteins and genes through the oral mucosa while preserving the bioactivity of these therapeutic agents. These wafers may be particularly useful in improving global implementation of mucosal vaccination against infectious diseases.

Selected Publications