Junwei Zhang's picture

Junwei Zhang, Ph.D.


Dept of Chemical Engineering

Education:

  1. B.S. Chemical Engineering, Zhejiang University, China
  2. Ph.D. Chemical Engineering, Yale University

203-432-4262

Research Interests:

Gene therapy is the treatment of disease by transferring genetic material into specific cells of the patient. It has been heavily investigated for the treatment of many diseases, including cancer. However, since unprotected gene will be easily degraded by endogenous nucleases, the success of gene therapy is largely dependent on the development of gene vectors that can efficiently deliver genes to target cells with minimal toxicity. Cationic polymers are promising candidates because of their facile synthesis, high stability and flexibility in functionalization, but most of them suffer due to low efficiency or high toxicity. Based on the previous research on polymeric gene carriers in the Saltzman Lab, I have synthesized a series of poly (amine-co-esters) containing ortho ester groups and these materials showed significantly higher gene delivery efficiency and greatly lower toxicity than the commercial gene vectors.

Other Interests:

Cycling, photography

Research Interests

Drug Delivery
Gene Therapy
Tissue Engineering

Contact

Department of Biomedical Engineering  |  Yale University
Malone Engineering Center (map)
55 Prospect St.  |  New Haven, CT 06511

Vascular Biology & Therapeutics Program | Yale School of Medicine
Amistad Research Building (map)
10 Amistad St.  |  New Haven, CT 06520

For Undergraduate Research Opportunities

Thank you for your interest in a research position in our lab! We have an application process to help match interested students with mentors and current research projects. Submission of applications are rolling, but we will review all applications on September 14th (fall term) and January 18th (spring and summer term). If you have any questions about the application, please contact anna.lynn@yale.edu. We look forward to receiving your application.

 https://forms.gle/ihoaojQa89NkTcNq9