Summary
The Patel group converges expertise in pharmaceutical chemistry, biomaterials and regenerative medicine to develop advanced therapies for chronic disease. Current research focusses on development of biomaterials for gene transfer to desired cell populations, engineering mRNA transcripts for controlled protein pharmacokinetics and application of RNA technologies to restore tissue homeostasis.
Asha joined the department in 2018 after completing 4 years of postdoctoral training as an EPSRC eterm fellow in the laboratories of Professors Daniel Anderson and Robert Langer at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA. Here, she developed biodegradable, non-viral vectors for the inhaled delivery of mRNA to the lung.
Asha graduated with a first class honours degree in Pharmacy from King's College London in 2006 and is a member of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society. In 2014, she was awarded her PhD by the University of Nottingham as part of the Doctoral Training Centre in Regenerative Medicine where she developed biomaterials that modulate human pluripotent stem cell and cardiomyocyte behaviour, under the guidance of Professors Chris Denning, Morgan Alexander and Martyn Davies.
Selected Publications
Journal Articles
Kaczmarek JC, Patel AK, Rhym LH, et al., 2021, Systemic delivery of mRNA and DNA to the lung using polymer-lipid nanoparticles, Biomaterials, Vol:275, ISSN:0142-9612, Pages:120966-120966
Patel AK, Kaczmarek JC, Bose S, et al., 2019, Inhaled nanoformulated mRNA polyplexes for protein production in lung epithelium, Advanced Materials, Vol:31, ISSN:0935-9648, Pages:1-7
Smith JGW, Owen T, Bhagwan JR, et al., 2018, Isogenic pairs of hiPSC-CMs with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy/LVNC-associated ACTC1 E99K mutation unveil differential functional deficits, Stem Cell Reports, Vol:11, ISSN:2213-6711, Pages:1226-1243
Delcassian D, Patel AK, Cortinas AB, et al., 2018, Drug delivery across length scales., J Drug Target, Pages:1-15
Kaczmarek JC, Patel AK, Kauffman KJ, et al., 2016, Polymer-lipid nanoparticles for systemic delivery of mRNA to the lungs, Angewandte Chemie International Edition, Vol:55, ISSN:1521-3757, Pages:13808-13812
Patel AK, Tibbitt MW, Celiz AD, et al., 2016, High throughput screening for discovery of materials that control stem cell fate, Current Opinion in Solid State & Materials Science, Vol:20, ISSN:1359-0286, Pages:202-211
Patel AK, Celiz AD, Rajamohan D, et al., 2015, A defined synthetic substrate for serum-free culture of human stem cell derived cardiomyocytes with improved functional maturity identified using combinatorial materials microarrays, Biomaterials, Vol:61, ISSN:0142-9612, Pages:257-265
Books
, 2020, Bioengineering Innovative Solutions for Cancer, Elsevier, ISBN:9780128138861