معرفی
Mingnan Chen is an Associate Professor in the Department of Biological Chemistry at the University of Utah School of Medicine, where he leads research at the intersection of peptide engineering and immunology. His laboratory focuses on developing immune-tolerant biomaterials with therapeutic applications.
His primary research interests include Immunotherapy, Autoimmune Disease, Neuroinflammation, Peptide and Protein Engineering, and Cell Engineering. Chen's work centers on understanding peptide-immune system interactions to engineer immunotolerant materials, particularly developing immunotolerant elastin-like polypeptides (iTEPs) that avoid immune recognition while maintaining functionality. His lab investigates fundamental questions about how peptide presentation affects immune responses and applies these findings to create novel therapeutics.
Analysis of his recent publications reveals a strong focus on PD-1 targeting for autoimmune disease treatment and iTEP-based nanocarrier systems for vaccines and cancer therapy. His work demonstrates consistent innovation in designing molecular tools that precisely modulate immune responses, with applications spanning cancer metastasis inhibition, autoimmune disease treatment, and vaccine development.
Chen maintains active research collaborations and utilizes advanced molecular engineering techniques to develop therapeutics targeting immune checkpoints. His laboratory has secured significant research funding to pursue the development of iTEP-based delivery systems for cancer chemotherapeutics and autoimmune disease treatments, with particular emphasis on metastasis-inhibiting nanoparticles and PD-1-targeting biologics.
His laboratory specializes in recombinant peptide engineering, creating precisely controlled nanocarriers with defined sizes and properties. Current projects include developing iTEP nanoparticles for targeted drug delivery to metastasis-initiating cells and designing bispecific engagers for selective depletion of PD-1-positive lymphocytes in autoimmune conditions.
