Research

Chemical Engineering Distinguished Lecture to focus on nanoparticle therapeutics

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – Mark E. Davis, the Warren and Katherine Schlinger Professor of Chemical Engineering at the California Institute of Technology, co-director of the USC-Caltech M.D.-Ph.D. program, and a member of the City of Hope National Medical Center, will serve as the featured speaker for the Department of Chemical Engineering’s fourth annual Distinguished Lectureship. Davis will present at 10 a.m. on Friday, Nov. 16, in the Huck Life Sciences Building’s Berg Auditorium on the University Park campus.

Mark E. Davis Credit: ProvidedAll Rights Reserved.

The lecture is free and open to all students, faculty, staff, alumni and members of the University community.

The Distinguished Lectureship is an opportunity to bring together the engineering, materials science, chemistry and life science communities for a time of learning and enrichment at University Park.

Davis’s lecture will be titled “Nanoparticle Therapeutics: From Concept to Clinic” and will focus on his work translating nanoparticles (CRLX-101 and CALAA-01) into the clinic for treating patients with solid cancers. One of these nanoparticles, experimental therapeutics, was the first to show functional RNA interference (RNAi) in humans.

Davis was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 1997, the National Academy of Sciences in 2006, and the National Academy of Medicine in 2011. He was also the first engineer to win the National Science Foundation’s Alan T. Waterman Award. Along with these honors, he is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Colburn Award and the Professional Progress Award from the AIChE, and the Somorjai, Ipatieff, Langmuir, Murphree and Gaden Prizes from the American Chemical Society.

Davis has authored more than 450 scientific publications, two textbooks and more than 90 US patents. He is a founding editor of CaTTech and has been an associate editor of Chemistry of Materials and the AIChE Journal.

In 2014, Davis received the Prince of Asturias Award for Technical and Scientific Research from the King of Spain, and in 2015, he was elected into the National Academy of Inventors. His research efforts involve materials synthesis in two general areas. They include zeolites and other solids that can be used for molecular recognition and catalysis, and polymers for the delivery of a broad range of therapeutics.

In addition, Davis is the founder of Insert Therapeutics Inc., Calando Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a company that created the first RNAi therapeutic to reach the clinic for treating cancer, and Avidity Biosciences. He is a member of the scientific advisory boards of the publicly traded companies Symyx, Alnylam, and Intellia Therapeutics.

Last Updated November 5, 2018