12/6/2024 Jackson Brunner, Materials Science and Engineering
Written by Jackson Brunner, Materials Science and Engineering
Critical work targeting treatments for an aggressive and deadly type of cancer has earned a major award for Carle Illinois College of Medicine Assistant Professor Hua Wang.
The Sontag Foundation selected Wang for its Distinguished Scientist Award after learning about his efforts to engineer vaccines to fight glioblastoma — a form of brain cancer with a five-year survival rate of only 5.9 percent, according to the National Brain Tumor Society. The honor comes with $750,000 in grant funding to back the groundbreaking work conducted in Wang's lab, based in the University of Illinois' Grainger College of Engineering, where Wang is a professor in the Departments of Materials Science and Engineering and Bioengineering.
Wang hopes to achieve the development of a new-generation vaccine using exosomes, which are small, spherical-shaped extracellular vesicles naturally produced by cells. Efforts will use an exosome labeling and targeting technology pioneered in his lab to combine glioblastoma exosomes with TLR3/7/8/9 agonists in a seamless manner. The goal is to amplify the cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) response and achieve superior efficacy in glioblastoma treatment.
“We have been actively pursuing the clinical translation of our cancer vaccine systems, and this Sontag Distinguished Scientist Award will bring us closer to our goal,” Wang said. “I also look forward to getting connected with and contributing to the Sontag network, with a shared goal of developing and translating effective therapies against brain cancer.”
Wang has ambitious goals for his research, including a vision for potential translation of the tumor exosome vaccine and other cancer vaccine platforms developed in his laboratory. Steering towards this goal, he has built an interdisciplinary team of material scientists, immunologists, pathologists and neurosurgeons as work continues.
"We are thrilled to welcome Dr. Wang as a Distinguished Scientist Award recipient,” said Hilary Keeley, executive director of The Sontag Foundation, in a statement. “His innovative research brings new skills and perspectives to our DSA community, and we are excited to support his work. We look forward to seeing how his project unfolds and contributes to advancing brain cancer research."
Sontag seeks to financially back early career scientists who demonstrate exceptional promise as they fight against brain cancer. The award has fostered a series of groundbreaking discoveries since it first began and has empowered researchers to not only improve treatments but also improve outcomes for cancer patients.
Editor's note:
More information about The Sontag Foundation can be found by visiting its website.
Hua Wang is an Illinois Grainger Engineering assistant professor of materials science and engineering and is a faculty affiliate of the Department of Bioengineering, Beckman Institute, Materials Research Laboratory, Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology and Carle Illinois College of Medicine.
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