Lorraine Leon, Ph.D.

Her research interests involve the design, characterization, and application of novel self-assembling materials. In particular, she is interested in biomimetic systems in which carefully tuned molecular interactions create functional and responsive materials for applications ranging from nanoscale electronics to drug delivery. In the Tirrell lab, she is working on fundamentally understanding the process of polyelectrolyte complex micellization and using this technology to encapsulate peptide and nucleic acid based therapeutics for the treatment of cancer and atherosclerosis. Currently, the group is using polypeptide materials as a model system to explore the kinetics and thermodynamics of formation, dissolution, and response to stimulus using several characterization techniques. For cancer treatment, they are exploring the creation of multifunctional micelles that contain both a cytotoxic peptide and cytostatic miRNA in the core and a fragmented antibody for specific targeting of cancer stem cells in the corona. Additionally, they are also creating temperature sensitive polyelectrolyte complex micelles to be used in combination with MRI guided high intensity ultrasound for the treatment of prostate cancer. To treat atherosclerosis, they are developing polyelectrolyte complex micelles with miRNA cores and different targeting peptides in the corona aimed at both early and late stage disease markers.