Nano-Engineered Biotic/Abiotic Materials and Interfaces for Understanding and Controlling Biology and Disease
C. Jeffrey Brinker, Ph.D.
Distinguished and Regent’s Professor of Chemical and Nuclear Engineering and Molecular Genetics and Microbiology; Member, UNM Cancer Center, the University of New Mexico
Fellow, Sandia National Laboratories
ABSTRACT: We have shown that yeast, bacterial, and mammalian cells, when introduced into self-assembling solutions of phospholipids and soluble silica, serve as living colloids directing the formation of unique biotic/abiotic interfaces and architectures through cellular response pathways. The association of silica with cellular interfaces has been further explored in recent work, where we have discovered conditions in which mammalian cells direct silica deposition in a self-limiting process that creates a precise nm-thick replica of their complete external and internal structures and preserves - to a degree – biofunctionality. Turning these lipid-associated silica nanostructures inside out, we have also recently developed lipid bilayers supported on mesoporous silica nanoparticles (aka ‘protocells’) as a new nanoparticle delivery agent, allowing the targeted delivery of arbitrary cargo to arbitrary cancer with unprecedented specificity. Compared to current liposomal delivery agents, protocells show a million-fold greater killing efficacy.
BIO: Jeff attended Rutgers University where he received his B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in ceramic science. He joined Sandia National Laboratories as a Member of the Technical Staff in 1979 and was appointed Distinguished National Laboratory Professor of Chemical Engineering at the University of New Mexico in 1991. Since 1999, he has been jointly employed at SNL where he is the single Sandia Fellow and at UNM where he is Distinguished and Regent’s Professor of Chemical and Nuclear Engineering. Brinker has been recognized for his work in sol-gel processing and its extension to self-assembly of porous and composite nanostructures, and recently novel types of biotic/abiotic materials, including porous nanoparticle supported lipid bilayers used as nanocarriers. His awards include R&D100 Awards in 1996, 2007, 2008 and 2010, the ACS Award in the Chemistry of Colloidal Materials, the DOE Ernest O. Lawrence Memorial Award in Materials Science, and the 2003 MRS Medal. In February 2002 he was elected into the U.S. National Academy of Engineering and in 2009 he was elected Fellow of MRS.