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There is now a CONTENT FREEZE for Mercury while we switch to a new platform. It began on Friday, March 10 at 6pm and will end on Wednesday, March 15 at noon. No new content can be created during this time, but all material in the system as of the beginning of the freeze will be migrated to the new platform, including users and groups. Functionally the new site is identical to the old one. webteam@gatech.edu
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Kevin Lindsay
Ph.D. Thesis Defense Presentation
Date: Tuesday, July 24, 2018
Time: 9:00 am
Location: UAW 3115 (McIntire)
Advisor: Phil Santangelo, Ph.D.
Committee:
Brandon Dixon, Ph.D.
Krish Roy, Ph.D.
Wilbur Lam, MD, Ph.D.
Eric Hunter, Ph.D.
Francois Villinger, DVM, Ph.D.
Title: Orthogonal platforms to modulate, monitor, and deliver mRNA in vivo
Summary:
Delivering molecular immunotherapies to the necessary organs is a frequent bottleneck in translating drugs to the clinic. We demonstrate two non-invasive approaches - one focused on imaging and the other on mucosal delivery - that attempt to inform the discussion of mRNA delivery in large mammals. To aid in the rational design of mRNA vaccines, we developed a dual PET/near-IR based approach to non-invasively monitor mRNA trafficking longitudinally with high spatio-temporal resolution in non-human primates. This dual imaging modality approach has the potential to link systemic scale events with cellular level details. We use this PET/CT based approach to monitor mRNA trafficking after transfection of the female reproductive tract (FRT) epithelium. Using antibody modifications, we can generate robust levels of the HIV broadly neutralizing antibody PGT121 that reach neutralizing concentrations within hours and persist for weeks.