Awesome! Congratulations!!

As a start up lab at the University of Oklahoma, this marks a big milestone! Our first original paper fully developed and tested at OU!

Huge thanks to NIGMS for the essential research support. Congratulations to co-authors Chloe Catelain, Danuta Radyna, and Harsh Joshi!

Want to learn more?

Synthesis of nanogels: science.org/doi/full/10....
Method to eval biodegradation kinetics: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
Proof of functionalization with peptides: sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Establishment of SyNK (this work): sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Taken together - this motivates evaluation of SyNK particles for therapeutic applications + tools to immune cell phenotype in vitro / ex vivo.

Exciting new questions emerging on the role of intrinsic particle activity on the innate immune response to immunotherapy formulations.

Exciting findings emerged from these activity screenings -> Intrinsic particle activity acts largely in combination with bound cytokine activity, and pre-conditioning or co-stimulatory conditions (e.g., presence of IFNg in the media) significantly change the macrophage response.

We validated production of this platform by a number of approaches, including DLS, dynamic drug release, activity validation, and Cryo-TEM. We then looked at patterns of bioactivity under various dosing regimens relevant to immunotherapy (e.g,. prophylactic, co-stimulatory)

We call our approach "Synthetic Nanoparticle CytoKines" or "SyNK". By immobilizing cytokines on nanogels, we eliminate release to surroundings + retain the ability for (now particle-bound) cytokine to bind transmembrane receptors and elicit changes to macrophage phenotype.