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Francis Szoka, PhD
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Professor, School of Pharmacy
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Email: frank.szoka@ucsf.edu
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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 26 - 50 of 209
- Guo X, Gagne L, Chen H, Szoka FC. Novel ortho ester-based, pH-sensitive cationic lipid for gene delivery in vitro and in vivo. J Liposome Res. 2014 Jun; 24(2):90-8.
- Li M, Yasumura D, Ma AA, Matthes MT, Yang H, Nielson G, Huang Y, Szoka FC, Lavail MM, Diamond MI. Intravitreal administration of HA-1077, a ROCK inhibitor, improves retinal function in a mouse model of huntington disease. PLoS One. 2013; 8(2):e56026.
- Kieler-Ferguson HM, Fréchet JM, Szoka FC. Clinical developments of chemotherapeutic nanomedicines: polymers and liposomes for delivery of camptothecins and platinum (II) drugs. Wiley Interdiscip Rev Nanomed Nanobiotechnol. 2013 Mar-Apr; 5(2):130-8.
- Walsh CL, Nguyen J, Tiffany MR, Szoka FC. Synthesis, characterization, and evaluation of ionizable lysine-based lipids for siRNA delivery. Bioconjug Chem. 2013 Jan 16; 24(1):36-43.
- Sockolosky JT, Szoka FC. Periplasmic production via the pET expression system of soluble, bioactive human growth hormone. Protein Expr Purif. 2013 Feb; 87(2):129-35.
- Venditto VJ, Watson DS, Motion M, Montefiori D, Szoka FC. Rational design of membrane proximal external region lipopeptides containing chemical modifications for HIV-1 vaccination. Clin Vaccine Immunol. 2013 Jan; 20(1):39-45.
- Venditto VJ, Szoka FC. Cancer nanomedicines: so many papers and so few drugs! Adv Drug Deliv Rev. 2013 Jan; 65(1):80-8.
- Sockolosky JT, Tiffany MR, Szoka FC. Engineering neonatal Fc receptor-mediated recycling and transcytosis in recombinant proteins by short terminal peptide extensions. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2012 Oct 02; 109(40):16095-100.
- Motion JP, Nguyen J, Szoka FC. Phosphatase-triggered fusogenic liposomes for cytoplasmic delivery of cell-impermeable compounds. Angew Chem Int Ed Engl. 2012 Sep 03; 51(36):9047-51.
- Nguyen J, Walsh CL, Motion JP, Perttu EK, Szoka F. Controlled nucleation of lipid nanoparticles. Pharm Res. 2012 Aug; 29(8):2236-48.
- Walsh CL, Nguyen J, Szoka FC. Synthesis and characterization of novel zwitterionic lipids with pH-responsive biophysical properties. Chem Commun (Camb). 2012 Jun 07; 48(45):5575-7.
- Nguyen J, Szoka FC. Nucleic acid delivery: the missing pieces of the puzzle? Acc Chem Res. 2012 Jul 17; 45(7):1153-62.
- Perttu EK, Kohli AG, Szoka FC. Inverse-phosphocholine lipids: a remix of a common phospholipid. J Am Chem Soc. 2012 Mar 14; 134(10):4485-8.
- Kohli AG, Walsh CL, Szoka FC. Synthesis and characterization of betaine-like diacyl lipids: zwitterionic lipids with the cationic amine at the bilayer interface. Chem Phys Lipids. 2012 Feb; 165(2):252-9.
- Perttu EK, Szoka FC. Zwitterionic sulfobetaine lipids that form vesicles with salt-dependent thermotropic properties. Chem Commun (Camb). 2011 Dec 21; 47(47):12613-5.
- Huang Z, Li W, Szoka FC. Asymmetric 1-alkyl-2-acyl phosphatidylcholine: a helper lipid for enhanced non-viral gene delivery. Int J Pharm. 2012 May 01; 427(1):64-70.
- Foglia F, Barlow DJ, Szoka FC, Huang Z, Rogers SE, Lawrence MJ. Structural studies of the monolayers and bilayers formed by a novel cholesterol-phospholipid chimera. Langmuir. 2011 Jul 05; 27(13):8275-81.
- Riviere K, Kieler-Ferguson HM, Jerger K, Szoka FC. Anti-tumor activity of liposome encapsulated fluoroorotic acid as a single agent and in combination with liposome irinotecan. J Control Release. 2011 Aug 10; 153(3):288-96.
- Chen B, van der Poll DG, Jerger K, Floyd WC, Fréchet JM, Szoka FC. Synthesis and properties of star-comb polymers and their doxorubicin conjugates. Bioconjug Chem. 2011 Apr 20; 22(4):617-24.
- Guy RH, Szoka FC. Perturbation of solute transport at a liquid-liquid interface by polyethylene glycol (PEG): implications for PEG-induced biomembrane fusion. Phys Chem Chem Phys. 2011 Mar 28; 13(12):5346-52.
- Iman M, Huang Z, Szoka FC, Jaafari MR. Characterization of the colloidal properties, in vitro antifungal activity, antileishmanial activity and toxicity in mice of a di-stigma-steryl-hemi-succinoyl-glycero-phosphocholine liposome-intercalated amphotericin B. Int J Pharm. 2011 Apr 15; 408(1-2):163-72.
- Floyd WC, Datta GK, Imamura S, Kieler-Ferguson HM, Jerger K, Patterson AW, Fox ME, Szoka FC, Fréchet JM, Ellman JA. Chemotherapeutic evaluation of a synthetic tubulysin analogue-dendrimer conjugate in c26 tumor bearing mice. ChemMedChem. 2011 Jan 03; 6(1):49-53.
- Watson DS, Platt VM, Cao L, Venditto VJ, Szoka FC. Antibody response to polyhistidine-tagged peptide and protein antigens attached to liposomes via lipid-linked nitrilotriacetic acid in mice. Clin Vaccine Immunol. 2011 Feb; 18(2):289-97.
- Motion JP, Huynh GH, Szoka FC, Siegel RA. Convection and retro-convection enhanced delivery: some theoretical considerations related to drug targeting. Pharm Res. 2011 Mar; 28(3):472-9.
- Platt V, Huang Z, Cao L, Tiffany M, Riviere K, Szoka FC. Influence of multivalent nitrilotriacetic acid lipid-ligand affinity on the circulation half-life in mice of a liposome-attached His6-protein. Bioconjug Chem. 2010 May 19; 21(5):892-902.