Francis Szoka, PhD

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Francis Szoka, PhD

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Professor, School of Pharmacy
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Biography

The Szoka group applies chemical, biophysical and molecular biology approaches to devise vaccine, drug and nucleic acid delivery systems to treat cancer or infectious diseases. These systems can incorporate lipids, peptides, polymers and proteins. These drug carriers are composed of lipids, polymers, peptides or proteins. His group has extensively investigated the role of lipids in membrane fusion and his designed, synthesized and studied the mechanism of fusogenic peptides. With group members, he has published over 220 manuscripts and has received 35 U.S. patents. One FDA approved drug product Amphotec™ and one biotechnology product Superfect™ have been commercialized from the patents. In addition to his University commitments, Dr. Szoka is a founder of Sequus Pharmaceuticals, Inc., GeneMedicine, Inc., and ZoneOne Pharma, Inc. Sequus introduced sterically stabilized liposomes for anti-cancer drug delivery (Doxil™).
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Displaying 1 - 25 of 209

  1. Szoka FC. A hitchhiker's guide to mucosal and systemic immunity. Sci Transl Med. 2022 07 20; 14(654):eadc8697.
  2. Zhou G, Chu S, Kohli A, Szoka FC, Gochin M. Biophysical studies of HIV-1 glycoprotein-41 interactions with peptides and small molecules - Effect of lipids and detergents. Biochim Biophys Acta Gen Subj. 2020 12; 1864(12):129724.
  3. Nguyen DN, Roth TL, Li PJ, Chen PA, Apathy R, Mamedov MR, Vo LT, Tobin VR, Goodman D, Shifrut E, Bluestone JA, Puck JM, Szoka FC, Marson A. Polymer-stabilized Cas9 nanoparticles and modified repair templates increase genome editing efficiency. Nat Biotechnol. 2020 01; 38(1):44-49.
  4. Yoneshiro T, Wang Q, Tajima K, Matsushita M, Maki H, Igarashi K, Dai Z, White PJ, McGarrah RW, Ilkayeva OR, Deleye Y, Oguri Y, Kuroda M, Ikeda K, Li H, Ueno A, Ohishi M, Ishikawa T, Kim K, Chen Y, Sponton CH, Pradhan RN, Majd H, Greiner VJ, Yoneshiro M, Brown Z, Chondronikola M, Takahashi H, Goto T, Kawada T, Sidossis L, Szoka FC, McManus MT, Saito M, Soga T, Kajimura S. BCAA catabolism in brown fat controls energy homeostasis through SLC25A44. Nature. 2019 08; 572(7771):614-619.
  5. Dolor A, Sampson SL, Lazar AA, Lotz JC, Szoka FC, Fields AJ. Matrix modification for enhancing the transport properties of the human cartilage endplate to improve disc nutrition. PLoS One. 2019; 14(4):e0215218.
  6. Tang J, Srinivasan S, Yuan W, Ming R, Liu Y, Dai Z, Noble CO, Hayes ME, Zheng N, Jiang W, Szoka FC, Schwendeman A. Development of a flow-through USP 4 apparatus drug release assay for the evaluation of amphotericin B liposome. Eur J Pharm Biopharm. 2019 Jan; 134:107-116.
  7. Dolor A, Kierstead P, Dai Z, Szoka FC. Correction: Sterol-modified PEG lipids: alteration of the bilayer anchoring moiety has an unexpected effect on liposome circulation. Chem Commun (Camb). 2018 11 13; 54(91):12891.
  8. Dolor A, Kierstead P, Dai Z, Szoka FC. Sterol-modified PEG lipids: alteration of the bilayer anchoring moiety has an unexpected effect on liposome circulation. Chem Commun (Camb). 2018 Oct 28; 54(84):11949-11952.
  9. Dolor A, Szoka FC. Digesting a Path Forward: The Utility of Collagenase Tumor Treatment for Improved Drug Delivery. Mol Pharm. 2018 06 04; 15(6):2069-2083.
  10. Shaghaghi M, Keyvanloo A, Huang Z, Szoka FC, Thewalt JL. Constrained Versus Free Cholesterol in DPPC Membranes: A Comparison of Chain Ordering Ability Using Deuterium NMR. Langmuir. 2017 12 19; 33(50):14405-14413.
  11. Lee S, Kivimäe S, Szoka FC. Clodronate Improves Survival of Transplanted Hoxb8 Myeloid Progenitors with Constitutively Active GMCSFR in Immunocompetent Mice. Mol Ther Methods Clin Dev. 2017 Dec 15; 7:60-73.
  12. Iman M, Huang Z, Alavizadeh SH, Szoka FC, Jaafari MR. Biodistribution and In Vivo Antileishmanial Activity of 1,2-Distigmasterylhemisuccinoyl-sn-Glycero-3-Phosphocholine Liposome-Intercalated Amphotericin B. Antimicrob Agents Chemother. 2017 09; 61(9).
  13. Kieler-Ferguson HM, Chan D, Sockolosky J, Finney L, Maxey E, Vogt S, Szoka FC. Encapsulation, controlled release, and antitumor efficacy of cisplatin delivered in liposomes composed of sterol-modified phospholipids. Eur J Pharm Sci. 2017 May 30; 103:85-93.
  14. Tiffany M, Szoka FC. Co-localization of fluorescent labeled lipid nanoparticles with specifically tagged subcellular compartments by single particle tracking at low nanoparticle to cell ratios. J Drug Target. 2016 11; 24(9):857-864.
  15. Yuan W, Kuai R, Dai Z, Yuan Y, Zheng N, Jiang W, Noble C, Hayes M, Szoka FC, Schwendeman A. Development of a Flow-Through USP-4 Apparatus Drug Release Assay to Evaluate Doxorubicin Liposomes. AAPS J. 2017 01; 19(1):150-160.
  16. Lee S, Kivimäe S, Dolor A, Szoka FC. Macrophage-based cell therapies: The long and winding road. J Control Release. 2016 10 28; 240:527-540.
  17. Kierstead PH, Okochi H, Venditto VJ, Chuong TC, Kivimae S, Fréchet JMJ, Szoka FC. The effect of polymer backbone chemistry on the induction of the accelerated blood clearance in polymer modified liposomes. J Control Release. 2015 Sep 10; 213:1-9.
  18. Sockolosky JT, Szoka FC. The neonatal Fc receptor, FcRn, as a target for drug delivery and therapy. Adv Drug Deliv Rev. 2015 Aug 30; 91:109-24.
  19. Venditto VJ, Dolor A, Kohli A, Salentinig S, Boyd BJ, Szoka FC. Sulfated quaternary amine lipids: a new class of inverse charge zwitterlipids. Chem Commun (Camb). 2014 Aug 21; 50(65):9109-11.
  20. Sockolosky JT, Kivimäe S, Szoka FC. Fusion of a short peptide that binds immunoglobulin G to a recombinant protein substantially increases its plasma half-life in mice. PLoS One. 2014; 9(7):e102566.
  21. Venditto VJ, Wieczorek L, Molnar S, Teque F, Landucci G, Watson DS, Forthal D, Polonis VR, Levy JA, Szoka FC. Chemically modified peptides based on the membrane-proximal external region of the HIV-1 envelope induce high-titer, epitope-specific nonneutralizing antibodies in rabbits. Clin Vaccine Immunol. 2014 Aug; 21(8):1086-93.
  22. Kohli AG, Kivimäe S, Tiffany MR, Szoka FC. Improving the distribution of Doxil® in the tumor matrix by depletion of tumor hyaluronan. J Control Release. 2014 Oct 10; 191:105-14.
  23. Kohli AG, Kierstead PH, Venditto VJ, Walsh CL, Szoka FC. Designer lipids for drug delivery: from heads to tails. J Control Release. 2014 Sep 28; 190:274-87.
  24. Ruhela D, Kivimäe S, Szoka FC. Chemoenzymatic synthesis of oligohyaluronan-lipid conjugates. Bioconjug Chem. 2014 Apr 16; 25(4):718-23.
  25. Kohli AG, Kieler-Ferguson HM, Chan D, Szoka FC. A robust and quantitative method for tracking liposome contents after intravenous administration. J Control Release. 2014 Feb 28; 176:86-93.