Team

Mauro Ferrari, Ph.D., Principal Investigator

Dr. Ferrari is a Chair and Professor Department of Nanomedicine and Biomedical Engineering at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHSC-H), a Professor of Experimental Therapeutics at The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center and a Professor of Bioengineering at Rice University. The Department of Nanomedicine and Biomedical Engineering at UTHSC-H is part of the University of Texas Inter-lnstitutlonal Department of Biomedical Engineering that is a joint venture among the Department of Biomedical Engineering (BME) at The University of Texas at Austin, The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center and the UTHSC-H. BME was established as a joint department spanning the three institutions on Sept. 1, 2006 aiming to strengthen the interdisciplinary research and education in biomedical engineering and enhance the translation of engineering technology to clinical use. Dr. Ferrari is the Institutional Deputy Chair for the joint Department leading the BME's operation at UTHSC-H. As BME chairman he has been granted over 33,000 gsf of space (the whole 6th floor) in the new CABIR building at UTHSC-H; 7,000 gsf are reserved for the Department of Nanomedicine and Biomedical Engineering. Dr. Ferrari is also the President of the Alliance for NanoHealth, a consortium organization formed by 8 universities in the Houston area including UTHSC-H, The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, The University of Texas Medical Branch, Rice University, Baylor College of Medicine, University of Houston, Texas A&M University and Methodist Hospital Research Institute to promote interdisciplinary and translational research of medical nanotechnology. He is an internationally recognized expert in the development, refinement and application of biomedical nanotechnologies. His principal disease focus is breast cancer. Before his recruitment to the Texas Medical Center to lead the Alliance for NanoHealth, he served as member of the Integration Panel of the BCRP, and as a Special Expert on Nanotechnology at the National Cancer Institute in 2003-2005. He was trained in mathematics, engineering and medicine.

David Gorenstein, Ph.D. Contact Principal Investigator 

will provide overall administrative responsibilities at UTHSC-Houston for the chemical linkage of fluorophors, thioaptamers (and X-aptamers) to nanoparticles. He will oversee all thioaptamer and X-aptamer selections and preparations. Dr. Gorenstein is the Deputy Director and Professor of The Brown Foundation Institute of Molecular Medicine at The University of Texas at Houston. Dr. Gorenstein has 40 years experience in protein and nucleic acid biochemistry (and more recently proteomics), drug development, and the development of biophysical applications of NMR spectroscopy to probe the detailed structure and dynamics of proteins and nucleic with over 250 publications.He is inventor of over 3 dozen patents (awarded and pending) on the synthesis of dithiophosphate oligonucleotide analogues and thiophosphate aptamer combinatorial selection technologies.

Anil K. Sood, M.D., Principal Investigator 

Dr. Sood is a physician-scientist and holds an appointment as Professor and Director of the Blanton-Davis Ovarian Cancer Research Program in the Department of Gynecologic Oncology. He also holds a joint appointment in the Department of Cancer Biology. He is Director, Center for RNAi and Non-Coding RNA at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center. He has 75% protected time for research. There are a total of 16 faculty members in the Department of Gynecologic Oncology; therefore, it is not difficult to maintain this amount of protected time for research. Dr. Sood has expertise in developing novel molecular therapeutic strategies. His research has been recognized nationally by several awards.

Gabriel Lopez-Berestein, M.D., Principal Investigator 

Dr. Lopez-Berestein is a Professor in the Department of Experimental Therapeutics. He has extensive experience in the use of liposomal delivery systems for hydrophobic drugs, chemotherapeutics, and antisense oligonucleotides.