Talk Title: “Nano-platforms for delivery of antisense oligonucleotides”
Abstract: This research work focuses on designing diverse nano-delivery platforms for antisense oligonucleotides. We have investigated the potential of polymeric and lipid-based nano-formulations to successfully deliver negatively charged or neutral antisense nucleic acid analogs for cancer therapy.
Biography: Shipra Malik is a 5th-year Ph.D. candidate in Dr. Raman Bahal’s lab in the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of Connecticut. Her research is focused on the interface of nucleic acid chemistry and nanotechnology for gene therapy. Her research work utilizes chemically modified antisense peptide nucleic acids (PNAs) and diverse delivery platforms with extensive in vitro and in vivo evaluations in multiple animal models. Her research efforts have already led to ten first-author publications and various co-author articles in prestigious journals like Advanced Functional Materials, Journal of Controlled Release, ACS Applied Material and Interface, Circulation Research, and Journal of Clinical Investigation Insights. Two of her published research works, in the journal Nanoscale and Molecular Therapy-Nucleic Acids, were selected as the cover page. Shipra is the recipient of several prestigious awards including OTS, Steve Nail, AAPS-NERDG, and numerous other travel awards. She also presented her research work at GRS, AAPS, OTS, and RNA society meetings. She has been the recipient of multiple esteemed graduate fellowships at the University of Connecticut. She was also the winner of the UConn 3-Minute Thesis competition in 2021. Before joining Dr. Bahal’s lab at UConn, she completed her Bachelor’s in Pharmacy and MS in Pharmaceutics from the University of Delhi, India, where she was awarded the Lieutenant Governor trophy for the best student.