Zhongchao Kevin Zhao
Research Interest and Experience
Future research interest
Develop multi-functional cancer immunotherapeis
Hepatitis B virus (HBV) capsid has a well-characterized structure and in vitro assembly system. The capsid exterior can be modified through chemical and genetic conjugations to present TLR agonists including small molecules, peptides, and proteins to stimulate the innate immune system. The capsid interior can be used to package genome and synthetic genetic materials e.g., mRNAs, Poly I:C, CpG dinucleotides for cytokine expression or TLR activation. Moreover, chemotherapeutics and small molecule TLR and STING agonists can be embedded into the capsid through a non-destructive antiviral linker. The research goal for this project is to engineer HBV capsid into multi-functional cancer immunotherapies that can target different perspectives of the tumor microenvironment simultaneously to achieve effective treatment of cancer and prevent recurrence.
Develop HBV capsid into a versatile platform for vaccine development and drug delivery
Postdoc at University of California, San Diego
Engineering design HBV capsid assembly
In this project, I re-designed the HBV capsid assembly pathway and generated asymmetrical holey capsids. HBV capsids assemble from symmetrical subunits. Here, I generated asymmetrical subunits through gene modification. By incorporating the asymmetrical subunits into the assembly process, I created rare species e.g., hexamers, holey capsids, and complete capsids with two distinct patches. This newly developed assembly process provides opportunities to load cargo into HBV capsids for nanotechnology cargo delivery.
Project II:
Inter-subunit interface regulates HBV capsid assembly
In this project, I re-designed the HBV capsid assembly pathway and generated asymmetrical holey capsids. HBV capsids assemble from symmetrical subunits. Here, I generated asymmetrical subunits through gene modification. By incorporating the asymmetrical subunits into the assembly process, I created rare species e.g., hexamers, holey capsids and complete capsids with two distinct patches. This new developed assembly process provides opportunities to load cargos into HBV capsids for nanotechnology cargo-delivery.
Project III:
Inter-subunit interface regulates HBV capsid assembly
In this project, I re-designed the HBV capsid assembly pathway and generated asymmetrical holey capsids. HBV capsids assemble from symmetrical subunits. Here, I generated asymmetrical subunits through gene modification. By incorporating the asymmetrical subunits into the assembly process, I created rare species e.g., hexamers, holey capsids and complete capsids with two distinct patches. This new developed assembly process provides opportunities to load cargos into HBV capsids for nanotechnology cargo-delivery.
