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SUMMARY:Pharmacology Seminar Series: Lipid Nanoparticles that Enable the C
 OVID-19 mRNA vaccines and Gene Therapies - Pieter Cullis\, Biochemistry an
 d Molecular Biology\, Faculty of Medicine\, UBC
DTSTART:20250203T150000Z
DTEND:20250203T160000Z
UID:TALK226861@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:124030
DESCRIPTION:Pieter R. Cullis\, PhD\, FRSC\, FRS\, OBC\, OC\, Director\, Na
 nomedicines Research Group\, Professor\, Department of Biochemistry and Mo
 lecular Biology\, University of British Columbia.\n\nLipid Nanoparticles t
 hat Enable the COVID-19 mRNA vaccines and Gene Therapies\n\nBiography\n\nD
 r. Cullis and co-workers have been responsible for fundamental advances in
  the development of nanomedicines employing lipid nanoparticle (LNP) techn
 ology for cancer therapies\, gene therapies and vaccines. This work has co
 ntributed to five drugs that have received clinical approval by the FDA\, 
 the European EMA and Health Canada. Dr. Cullis has also co-founded more th
 an 10 biotechnology companies that now employ over 500 people\, has publis
 hed over 400 scientific articles (h index 140) and is an inventor on over 
 100 patents. He has also co-founded and been Founding Scientific Director 
 of two National Centre of Excellence networks\, the Centre for Drug Resear
 ch and Development (now AdMare) in 2004 and the NanoMedicines Innovation N
 etwork in 2019. These not-for-profit networks are aimed at translating bas
 ic research in the life sciences into commercially viable products and hav
 e given rise to numerous start-up companies. Dr. Cullis also has a strong 
 interest in personalized medicine\, having published a book entitled “Th
 e Personalized Medicine Revolution: How Diagnosing and Treating Disease Ar
 e About to Change Forever” in 2015.\n\nTwo drugs enabled by LNP delivery
  systems devised by Dr. Cullis\, members of his UBC laboratory and colleag
 ues in the companies he has co-founded deserve special emphasis. The first
  is Onpattro which was approved by the US FDA in August 2018 to treat the 
 previously fatal hereditary condition transthyretin-induced amyloidosis (h
 ATTR). Onpattro is the first RNAi drug to receive regulatory approval.  Th
 e second is Comirnaty\, the COVID-19 mRNA vaccine developed by Pfizer/BioN
 Tech that has received regulatory approval in many jurisdictions including
  Canada\, the USA\, the UK and Europe. Comirnaty has played a major role i
 n containing the global Covid-19 pandemic with approximately 6B doses admi
 nistered worldwide in 2021 and 2022.\n\nDr. Cullis has received many award
 s including the Order of Canada in 2021\, the VinFuture Prize (Vietnam)\, 
 the Prince Mahidol Award (Thailand)\, the Gairdner International Award (Ca
 nada) and the Tang Prize (Taiwan) in 2022 and the Harvey Prize (Israel) an
 d the Killam Prize (Canada) in 2023. He was made a Fellow of the Royal Soc
 iety (London) in 2023 and elected to the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame in 
 2024.
LOCATION:Seminar Room (Level 2)\, Dept of Pharmacology 
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