NanoEngineering gone #viral: plant virus-based therapeutics
Event details
| Date | 28.11.2025 |
| Hour | 12:00 › 13:30 |
| Speaker | Nicole F. Steinmetz, Ph.D. Leo and Trude Szilard Chancellor's Endowed Chair Aiiso Yufeng Li Family Department of Chemical and Nano Engineering University of California, San Diego |
| Location | Online |
| Category | Conferences - Seminars |
| Event Language | English |
SEMINAR
Abstract:
Nanoscale engineering is revolutionizing the way we detect, prevent and treat diseases. Viruses are playing a special role in these developments because they can function as nanoparticles. We turned toward plant viruses as a platform nanotechnology. Produced through plant molecular farming using plants as bioreactors, plant virus nanotechnology is scalable using relatively non-sophisticated infrastructure. We have developed a library of plant virus-based nanoparticles and through structure-function studies we are beginning to understand how to tailor these materials appropriately for applications targeting human and plant health. We have developed plant virus-based delivery systems packaging small molecules or biologics (proteins and nucleic acid therapeutics). Given their immunomodulatory nature, we have developed vaccine and cancer immunotherapy candidates targeting cancer and other chronic diseases. A lead candidate for intratumoral immunotherapy has undergone testing in canine cancer trials treating companion dogs and is now entering the clinical development pipeline. Another avenue is the repurposing of plant viruses to enable plant health; we employ principles of nanomedicine to target plant pathogens with foliar and soil applications. In this lecture, I will highlight engineering design principles employed to synthesize the next-generation nanoscale biologics using plant virus-based platform technologies, and I will discuss the evaluation of such in preclinical mouse models, canine cancer patients as well as in the agricultural arena.
Bio:
Nicole F. Steinmetz Ph.D.
Dr. Steinmetz is a Professor and Vice Chair of the Aiiso Yufeng Li Family Department of Chemical and Nano Engineering at the University of California, San Diego; she holds the Leo and Trude Szilard Chancellor's Endowed Chair and is the founding Director of the Center for Nano-ImmunoEngineering (nanoIE), Co-Director for the Center for Engineering in Cancer, and serves on the Leadership Team for a UC San Diego Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (MRSEC), an $18M NSF-funded research center. Dr. Steinmetz trained at The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA; she obtained her PhD in Bionanotechnology from the University of East Anglia/John Innes Centre, Norwich, UK; her early training was at the RWTH-Aachen University in Germany, where she now holds a Honorary Adjunct Professorship. Dr. Steinmetz’s research program focuses on the engineering of plant virus-based nanomaterials targeting human and plant health applications, such as drug and pesticide delivery, vaccines and immunotherapies. Dr. Steinmetz has authored more than 300 journal articles (H index >70) and she is an inventor of >70 patents and patent applications. Dr. Steinmetz is a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors, the Biomedical Engineering Society, the International Association of Advanced Materials, the Royal Society of Chemistry, and the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering – most recently she was elected Member of the European Academy of Science and Arts. Dr. Steinmetz’s research program is supported through grants from NIH, NSF, NIFA, CDMRP as well as ACS, Susan G. Komen, AHA, amongst other agencies. Over the past 10+ years, Dr. Steinmetz has been awarded grants as PI and Co-PI totaling > $50 million in total costs.
Zoom link for attending remotely: https://epfl.zoom.us/j/62855187573
Instructions for 1st-year Ph.D. students planning to attend this talk, who are under EDBB’s mandatory seminar attendance rule:
IN CASE you cannot attend in-person in the room, please make sure to
Abstract:
Nanoscale engineering is revolutionizing the way we detect, prevent and treat diseases. Viruses are playing a special role in these developments because they can function as nanoparticles. We turned toward plant viruses as a platform nanotechnology. Produced through plant molecular farming using plants as bioreactors, plant virus nanotechnology is scalable using relatively non-sophisticated infrastructure. We have developed a library of plant virus-based nanoparticles and through structure-function studies we are beginning to understand how to tailor these materials appropriately for applications targeting human and plant health. We have developed plant virus-based delivery systems packaging small molecules or biologics (proteins and nucleic acid therapeutics). Given their immunomodulatory nature, we have developed vaccine and cancer immunotherapy candidates targeting cancer and other chronic diseases. A lead candidate for intratumoral immunotherapy has undergone testing in canine cancer trials treating companion dogs and is now entering the clinical development pipeline. Another avenue is the repurposing of plant viruses to enable plant health; we employ principles of nanomedicine to target plant pathogens with foliar and soil applications. In this lecture, I will highlight engineering design principles employed to synthesize the next-generation nanoscale biologics using plant virus-based platform technologies, and I will discuss the evaluation of such in preclinical mouse models, canine cancer patients as well as in the agricultural arena.
Bio:
Nicole F. Steinmetz Ph.D.
Dr. Steinmetz is a Professor and Vice Chair of the Aiiso Yufeng Li Family Department of Chemical and Nano Engineering at the University of California, San Diego; she holds the Leo and Trude Szilard Chancellor's Endowed Chair and is the founding Director of the Center for Nano-ImmunoEngineering (nanoIE), Co-Director for the Center for Engineering in Cancer, and serves on the Leadership Team for a UC San Diego Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (MRSEC), an $18M NSF-funded research center. Dr. Steinmetz trained at The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA; she obtained her PhD in Bionanotechnology from the University of East Anglia/John Innes Centre, Norwich, UK; her early training was at the RWTH-Aachen University in Germany, where she now holds a Honorary Adjunct Professorship. Dr. Steinmetz’s research program focuses on the engineering of plant virus-based nanomaterials targeting human and plant health applications, such as drug and pesticide delivery, vaccines and immunotherapies. Dr. Steinmetz has authored more than 300 journal articles (H index >70) and she is an inventor of >70 patents and patent applications. Dr. Steinmetz is a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors, the Biomedical Engineering Society, the International Association of Advanced Materials, the Royal Society of Chemistry, and the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering – most recently she was elected Member of the European Academy of Science and Arts. Dr. Steinmetz’s research program is supported through grants from NIH, NSF, NIFA, CDMRP as well as ACS, Susan G. Komen, AHA, amongst other agencies. Over the past 10+ years, Dr. Steinmetz has been awarded grants as PI and Co-PI totaling > $50 million in total costs.
Zoom link for attending remotely: https://epfl.zoom.us/j/62855187573
Instructions for 1st-year Ph.D. students planning to attend this talk, who are under EDBB’s mandatory seminar attendance rule:
IN CASE you cannot attend in-person in the room, please make sure to
- send D. Reinhard a note well ahead of time (ideally before seminar day), informing that you plan to attend the talk online, and, during seminar:
- be signed in on Zoom with a recognizable user name (not any alias making it difficult or impossible to identify you).
Practical information
- Informed public
- Free