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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  1. van der Poll DG, Kieler-Ferguson HM, Floyd WC, Guillaudeu SJ, Jerger K, Szoka FC, Fréchet JM. Design, synthesis, and biological evaluation of a robust, biodegradable dendrimer. Bioconjug Chem. 2010 Apr 21; 21(4):764-73.
  2. Riviere K, Huang Z, Jerger K, Macaraeg N, Szoka FC. Antitumor effect of folate-targeted liposomal doxorubicin in KB tumor-bearing mice after intravenous administration. J Drug Target. 2011 Jan; 19(1):14-24.
  3. Johansen EB, Szoka FC, Zaleski A, Apicella MA, Gibson BW. Utilizing the O-antigen lipopolysaccharide biosynthesis pathway in Escherichia coli to interrogate the substrate specificities of exogenous glycosyltransferase genes in a combinatorial approach. Glycobiology. 2010 Jun; 20(6):763-74.
  4. Fox ME, Guillaudeu S, Fréchet JM, Jerger K, Macaraeg N, Szoka FC. Synthesis and in vivo antitumor efficacy of PEGylated poly(l-lysine) dendrimer-camptothecin conjugates. Mol Pharm. 2009 Sep-Oct; 6(5):1562-72.
  5. Fox ME, Szoka FC, Fréchet JM. Soluble polymer carriers for the treatment of cancer: the importance of molecular architecture. Acc Chem Res. 2009 Aug 18; 42(8):1141-51.
  6. Huang Z, Hwang P, Watson DS, Cao L, Szoka FC. Tris-nitrilotriacetic acids of subnanomolar affinity toward hexahistidine tagged molecules. Bioconjug Chem. 2009 Aug 19; 20(8):1667-72.
  7. Watson DS, Huang Z, Szoka FC. All-trans retinoic acid potentiates the antibody response in mice to a lipopeptide antigen adjuvanted with liposomal lipid A. Immunol Cell Biol. 2009 Nov-Dec; 87(8):630-3.
  8. Watson DS, Szoka FC. Role of lipid structure in the humoral immune response in mice to covalent lipid-peptides from the membrane proximal region of HIV-1 gp41. Vaccine. 2009 Jul 23; 27(34):4672-83.
  9. Chen B, Jerger K, Fréchet JM, Szoka FC. The influence of polymer topology on pharmacokinetics: differences between cyclic and linear PEGylated poly(acrylic acid) comb polymers. J Control Release. 2009 Dec 16; 140(3):203-9.
  10. Park JI, Cao L, Platt VM, Huang Z, Stull RA, Dy EE, Sperinde JJ, Yokoyama JS, Szoka FC. Antitumor therapy mediated by 5-fluorocytosine and a recombinant fusion protein containing TSG-6 hyaluronan binding domain and yeast cytosine deaminase. Mol Pharm. 2009 May-Jun; 6(3):801-12.
  11. Nasongkla N, Chen B, Macaraeg N, Fox ME, Fréchet JM, Szoka FC. Dependence of pharmacokinetics and biodistribution on polymer architecture: effect of cyclic versus linear polymers. J Am Chem Soc. 2009 Mar 25; 131(11):3842-3.
  12. Cohen RN, van der Aa MA, Macaraeg N, Lee AP, Szoka FC. Quantification of plasmid DNA copies in the nucleus after lipoplex and polyplex transfection. J Control Release. 2009 Apr 17; 135(2):166-74.
  13. Huang Z, Jaafari MR, Szoka FC. Disterolphospholipids: nonexchangeable lipids and their application to liposomal drug delivery. Angew Chem Int Ed Engl. 2009; 48(23):4146-9.
  14. Huang Z, Szoka FC. Sterol-modified phospholipids: cholesterol and phospholipid chimeras with improved biomembrane properties. J Am Chem Soc. 2008 Nov 19; 130(46):15702-12.
  15. Platt VM, Szoka FC. Anticancer therapeutics: targeting macromolecules and nanocarriers to hyaluronan or CD44, a hyaluronan receptor. Mol Pharm. 2008 Jul-Aug; 5(4):474-86.
  16. MacKay JA, Li W, Huang Z, Dy EE, Huynh G, Tihan T, Collins R, Deen DF, Szoka FC. HIV TAT peptide modifies the distribution of DNA nanolipoparticles following convection-enhanced delivery. Mol Ther. 2008 May; 16(5):893-900.
  17. Szoka F. Molecular biology. The art of assembly. Science. 2008 Feb 01; 319(5863):578-9.
  18. Guillaudeu SJ, Fox ME, Haidar YM, Dy EE, Szoka FC, Fréchet JM. PEGylated dendrimers with core functionality for biological applications. Bioconjug Chem. 2008 Feb; 19(2):461-9.
  19. Chen H, Zhang H, McCallum CM, Szoka FC, Guo X. Unsaturated cationic ortho esters for endosome permeation in gene delivery. J Med Chem. 2007 Sep 06; 50(18):4269-78.
  20. Li W, Suez I, Szoka FC. Reconstitution of the M13 major coat protein and its transmembrane peptide segment on a DNA template. Biochemistry. 2007 Jul 24; 46(29):8579-91.
  21. Li W, Szoka FC. Lipid-based nanoparticles for nucleic acid delivery. Pharm Res. 2007 Mar; 24(3):438-49.
  22. Karpuj MV, Giles K, Gelibter-Niv S, Scott MR, Lingappa VR, Szoka FC, Peretz D, Denetclaw W, Prusiner SB. Phosphorothioate oligonucleotides reduce PrP levels and prion infectivity in cultured cells. Mol Med. 2007 Mar-Apr; 13(3-4):190-8.
  23. Huynh GH, Ozawa T, Deen DF, Tihan T, Szoka FC. Retro-convection enhanced delivery to increase blood to brain transfer of macromolecules. Brain Res. 2007 Jan 12; 1128(1):181-90.
  24. Huang Z, Park JI, Watson DS, Hwang P, Szoka FC. Facile synthesis of multivalent nitrilotriacetic acid (NTA) and NTA conjugates for analytical and drug delivery applications. Bioconjug Chem. 2006 Nov-Dec; 17(6):1592-600.
  25. Lee CC, Gillies ER, Fox ME, Guillaudeu SJ, Fréchet JM, Dy EE, Szoka FC. A single dose of doxorubicin-functionalized bow-tie dendrimer cures mice bearing C-26 colon carcinomas. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2006 Nov 07; 103(45):16649-54.