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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 101 - 125 of 209
- Eliaz RE, Szoka FC. Robust and prolonged gene expression from injectable polymeric implants. Gene Ther. 2002 Sep; 9(18):1230-7.
- Ihre HR, Padilla De Jesús OL, Szoka FC, Fréchet JM. Polyester dendritic systems for drug delivery applications: design, synthesis, and characterization. Bioconjug Chem. 2002 May-Jun; 13(3):443-52.
- Padilla De Jesús OL, Ihre HR, Gagne L, Fréchet JM, Szoka FC. Polyester dendritic systems for drug delivery applications: in vitro and in vivo evaluation. Bioconjug Chem. 2002 May-Jun; 13(3):453-61.
- Uyechi LS, Gagné L, Thurston G, Szoka FC. Mechanism of lipoplex gene delivery in mouse lung: binding and internalization of fluorescent lipid and DNA components. Gene Ther. 2001 Jun; 8(11):828-36.
- Supattapone S, Wille H, Uyechi L, Safar J, Tremblay P, Szoka FC, Cohen FE, Prusiner SB, Scott MR. Branched polyamines cure prion-infected neuroblastoma cells. J Virol. 2001 Apr; 75(7):3453-61.
- Eliaz RE, Szoka FC. Liposome-encapsulated doxorubicin targeted to CD44: a strategy to kill CD44-overexpressing tumor cells. Cancer Res. 2001 Mar 15; 61(6):2592-601.
- Sperinde JJ, Choi SJ, Szoka FC. Phage display selection of a peptide DNase II inhibitor that enhances gene delivery. J Gene Med. 2001 Mar-Apr; 3(2):101-8.
- Guo X, Szoka FC. Steric stabilization of fusogenic liposomes by a low-pH sensitive PEG--diortho ester--lipid conjugate. Bioconjug Chem. 2001 Mar-Apr; 12(2):291-300.
- Sparrer HE, Santoso A, Szoka FC, Weissman JS. Evidence for the prion hypothesis: induction of the yeast [PSI+] factor by in vitro- converted Sup35 protein. Science. 2000 Jul 28; 289(5479):595-9.
- Choi SJ, Szoka FC. Fluorometric determination of deoxyribonuclease I activity with PicoGreen. Anal Biochem. 2000 May 15; 281(1):95-7.
- Nicol F, Nir S, Szoka FC. Effect of phospholipid composition on an amphipathic peptide-mediated pore formation in bilayer vesicles. Biophys J. 2000 Feb; 78(2):818-29.
- Ouyang M, Remy JS, Szoka FC. Controlled template-assisted assembly of plasmid DNA into nanometric particles with high DNA concentration. Bioconjug Chem. 2000 Jan-Feb; 11(1):104-12.
- Urtti A, Polansky J, Lui GM, Szoka FC. Gene delivery and expression in human retinal pigment epithelial cells: effects of synthetic carriers, serum, extracellular matrix and viral promoters. J Drug Target. 2000; 7(6):413-21.
- Hirota S, de Ilarduya CT, Barron LG, Szoka FC. Simple mixing device to reproducibly prepare cationic lipid-DNA complexes (lipoplexes). Biotechniques. 1999 Aug; 27(2):286-90.
- Barron LG, Gagné L, Szoka FC. Lipoplex-mediated gene delivery to the lung occurs within 60 minutes of intravenous administration. Hum Gene Ther. 1999 Jul 01; 10(10):1683-94.
- Xu Y, Hui SW, Frederik P, Szoka FC. Physicochemical characterization and purification of cationic lipoplexes. Biophys J. 1999 Jul; 77(1):341-53.
- Barron LG, Uyechi LS, Szoka FC. Cationic lipids are essential for gene delivery mediated by intravenous administration of lipoplexes. Gene Ther. 1999 Jun; 6(6):1179-83.
- Nicol F, Nir S, Szoka FC. Orientation of the pore-forming peptide GALA in POPC vesicles determined by a BODIPY-avidin/biotin binding assay. Biophys J. 1999 Apr; 76(4):2121-41.
- Plank C, Tang MX, Wolfe AR, Szoka FC. Branched cationic peptides for gene delivery: role of type and number of cationic residues in formation and in vitro activity of DNA polyplexes. Hum Gene Ther. 1999 Jan 20; 10(2):319-32.
- Turunen MP, Hiltunen MO, Ruponen M, Virkamäki L, Szoka FC, Urtti A, Ylä-Herttuala S. Efficient adventitial gene delivery to rabbit carotid artery with cationic polymer-plasmid complexes. Gene Ther. 1999 Jan; 6(1):6-11.
- Nir S, Nicol F, Szoka FC. Surface aggregation and membrane penetration by peptides: relation to pore formation and fusion. Mol Membr Biol. 1999 Jan-Mar; 16(1):95-101.
- Peschka R, Dennehy C, Szoka FC. A simple in vitro model to study the release kinetics of liposome encapsulated material. J Control Release. 1998 Dec 04; 56(1-3):41-51.
- Davis SC, Szoka FC. Cholesterol phosphate derivatives: synthesis and incorporation into a phosphatase and calcium-sensitive triggered release liposome. Bioconjug Chem. 1998 Nov-Dec; 9(6):783-92.
- Wang J, Guo X, Xu Y, Barron L, Szoka FC. Synthesis and characterization of long chain alkyl acyl carnitine esters. Potentially biodegradable cationic lipids for use in gene delivery. J Med Chem. 1998 Jun 18; 41(13):2207-15.
- Zelphati O, Uyechi LS, Barron LG, Szoka FC. Effect of serum components on the physico-chemical properties of cationic lipid/oligonucleotide complexes and on their interactions with cells. Biochim Biophys Acta. 1998 Feb 16; 1390(2):119-33.