Time: 10:00-11:30 am, Friday, August 12, 2022

Venue: Lecture Hall, Ground Floor of Building A1, Yungu Campus

Host: Anping Zeng, Chair Professor, School of Engineering, Westlake University

Speaker：

Prof. Guanghui Ma

Professor（Academican)

Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences

Biography:

Guanghui Ma is a professor and the director of the State Key Laboratory of Biochemical Engineering (SKLBCE), Institute of Process Engineering (IPE), CAS. She received Bachelor degree from Gunma University, Master and PhD degrees from Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan, respectively. She joined SKLBCE as a professor in 2001 and was promoted to the director in 2012. She has published over 450 papers, including Nat. Mater., Nat Nanotechnol., Nat. Biomed. Eng., Sci Transl Med., Sci. Adv., Nat. Commun., JACS, Adv. Mater., edited several books such as“Microspheres and Microcapsules in Biotechnology”. She has more than 90 patents authorized, the technology and products have been commercialized in companies. She has received the State National Invention Award (2nd Class; 2009), the Beijing Science and Technology Award (1st Class; 2005), the Basic Research Achievement Award (1st Class; 2020) of the Chemical Industry and Engineering Society of China. She was elected as the member of Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the fellow of American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering (AIBME).

Abstract:

Polymer particles have important applications in biochemical and biomedical engineering. However, it is difficult to prepare biocompatible particles with uniform size by conventional technique. We have established a novel platform – Membrane Emulsification Process to prepare uniform particles (microspheres and microcapsules) with controlled size and morphology. We have utilized this platform to develop uniform agarose particles for protein separation, and PLGA particles for sustained drug release successfully. In recent years, we have proposed to use uniform particles with special structures in vaccine purification and vaccine delivery.

By developing a micelle-swollen method, we successfully obtained giga-porous particle. And we found that giga-pores of the particle can maintain the stability of VLP (virus-like particle) during chromatographic separation and analysis. As a result, new separation and analysis methods were successfully developed for industry instead of conventional density gradient ultracentrifugation technique.

In recent years, we utilized the unform particle platform to design the biomimetic vaccines to enhance their immune response. For example, we prepared uniform poly(lactide-co-glycolide) (PLGA) nanoparticle firstly, then used uniform PLGA nano-particle as stabilizer to obtain Pickering emulsion (PPAS). We loaded antigen in gap among PLGA nanoparticles of PPAS to form synthetic biomimetic vaccine[5]. That is, PPAS showed force-dependent deformation and antigen lateral mobility, mimicking pathogen behavior. As a result, PPAS showed strong protective and therapeutic effects by eliciting humoral and cellular immune response. Furthermore, we used Pickering emulsion stabilized by Alum nanoparticles for construction of COVID-19 vaccine, it induced much higher antigen specific IgG and T cell, which implied much better protective and therapeutic effect, compared with commercial Alum adjuvant.

Contact:

Ms. Huaiwei Shi, School of Engineering

shihuaiwei@westlake.edu.cn