معرفی
J. Andrew MacKay is a Professor of Pharmacology and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Biomedical Engineering, and Ophthalmology at the University of Southern California. He is a full member of the USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center and directs the MacKay Lab, which focuses on innovative protein-polymer tools and drug carriers for biomedical applications.
Dr. MacKay received his SB in chemical engineering and biology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1999. As a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Predoctoral Fellow, he completed his PhD at the University of California at San Francisco and Berkeley in the joint graduate group in bioengineering in 2005. He then pursued postdoctoral training at Duke University as a Kirschstein National Research Service Award Fellow before joining the USC faculty in 2008.
His research expertise spans multiple disciplines:
- Biomolecular Engineering of protein polymers
- Nanomedicine and drug delivery systems
- Ocular drug delivery for treating eye diseases
- Pharmacokinetics of novel therapeutic carriers
- Elastin-like polypeptides (ELPs) as responsive biomaterials
- Synthetic biology approaches to therapeutic design
- Cancer therapeutics and targeted delivery
Dr. MacKay's laboratory has pioneered the use of elastin-like polypeptides (ELPs) - repetitive protein polymers that can be genetically engineered to respond to environmental cues such as temperature. His group has made significant breakthroughs in developing ELP-based carriers for drugs like cyclosporine A and rapamycin, with applications in autoimmune diseases like Sjögren's syndrome and cancer therapy. Their work demonstrates how these biomaterials can improve drug bioavailability, reduce toxicity, and enable targeted delivery to specific tissues.
His research has been widely recognized and supported by major funding agencies including the National Institutes of Health, National Eye Institute, U.S. Army, StopCancer, and several USC foundations. With over 84 peer-reviewed publications, his work bridges the fields of pharmacology, biomaterials science, and translational medicine.
Dr. MacKay has received several prestigious awards including the Wright Foundation Young Investigator Award (2011), Stop Cancer Research Career Development Award (2010), and the Kirschstein National Research Service Award (2006).
He serves in editorial roles for prominent journals including as Executive Editor for Advanced Drug Delivery Reviews and on the editorial boards of Theranostics and other publications. He is an active member of professional societies including the Society for Controlled Release, Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology, and American Chemical Society.
