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Education:

• B.S. 1986 Chemistry University of Utah
• Ph.D. 1991 Pharmaceutics University of Utah
• Postdoc 1993 Institute of Biomedical Engineering, Tokyo Women's Medical College

Overview

Dr. Glen S. Kwon was a Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) Postdoctoral Fellow at the Institute of Biomedical Engineering at Tokyo Women's Medical College in Tokyo, Japan from 1991 to 1993 and an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada from 1993 to 1997. He received the Jorge Heller Journal of Controlled Release/Controlled Release Society (CRS) Outstanding Paper Award in 1994, National Institutes of Health (NIH) FIRST Research Award in 1998, and American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy Faculty New Investigator Award in 1998. He was a JSPS Fellow at the Institute of Advanced Biomedical Engineering and Science at Tokyo Women's Medical University in 2002, and he received the CRS Young Investigator Research Achievement Award in 2003. He was the editor of Polymeric Drug Delivery Systems in 2005 and co-editor of Nanotechnology in Drug Delivery in 2008. He is an Adjunct Professor in the Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of Alberta. He is a member of the Gene and Drug Delivery (GDD) Study Section at the NIH. He is a member of the Experimental Therapeutics Program at the UW Comprehensive Cancer Center. He is an Associate Editor for the J. of Pharmacy and Pharm. Sci. He serves on the editorial boards of J. Controlled Release, Pharm. Res., Exp. Biology & Med., Recent Patents and Drug Form., Biopharm. Drug Dispos., and J. Pharm. Sci.

The focal point of our drug delivery research is polymeric nanobiomaterials: polymeric micelles, polymer-drug conjugates, and poly-ion complexes for drug, peptide/protein, and non-viral gene delivery. This thrust of pharmaceutical research has gained recent attention as a major component of nanomedicine because of its potential for innovative targeted therapies and major clinical advances in the treatment of life-threatening diseases. Given the very small size of polymeric nanobiomaterials, it is believed that a thorough physical understanding of these nanocarriers is critical in achieving tasks of targeting in vivo. Thus, physical pharmacy, a term coined at the School of Pharmacy, University of Wisconsin, is a central element in the training of graduate students and our research: structure-property relationships in drug solubilization, controlled drug release, and drug targeting, and advancement of drug delivery concepts, e.g. combination drug delivery. We are very interested in the delivery of heat shock protein (Hsp) inhibitors and inducers for treatments of cancer, systemic fungal diseases, and neurological diseases. Targeting of Hsps 90 and 70 has emerged as an exciting concept in pharmacology due to their chaperone roles in protein folding, stability, and activity. A growing understanding of the pharmacology of Hsp inhibitors/inducers provides a strong rationale for the integration of polymeric nanobiomaterials and modulation of the heat shock response for synergistic pharmacological responses, cytoplasmic gene delivery, and novel pathways for cell death.

Work-Related Interests/Research:

Polymeric nanobiomaterials; drug delivery; non-viral gene delivery; drug solubilization; controlled release; and pre-targeting strategies.

Highlighted Publications:

• J. A. Yáñez, M. L. Forrest, Y. Ohgami, G. S. Kwon, and N. M. Davies, "Pharmacometrics and delivery of novel nanoformulated PEG-b-poly(epsilon-caprolactone) micelles of rapamycin," Cancer Chemother. Pharmacol., 61, 133-144 (2008).
• Y. Bae, T. A. Diezi, A. Zhao, and G. S. Kwon, "Mixed polymeric micelles for combination cancer chemotherapy through the concurrent delivery of multiple chemotherapeutic agents," J. Controlled Release, 122, 324-330 (2007).
• M. Xiong. M. L. Forrest, G. Ton, A. Zhao, N. M. Davis and G. S. Kwon, "Poly(aspartate-g-PEI800), a polyethylenimine analogue of low toxicity and high transfection efficiency for gene delivery," Biomaterials, 28, 4889-4900 (2007).
• M. P. Xiong, Y. Bae, S. Fukushima, M. L. Forrest, N. Nishiyama, K. Kataoka, and G. S. Kwon, "pH-responsive multi-PEGylated dual cationic nanoparticles enable charge modulations for safe gene delivery," ChemMedChem., 2, 1321-1327 (2007).
• M. L. Forrest, A. Zhao, C-Y Won, A. W. Malick, and G. S. Kwon, "Lipophilic prodrugs of hsp90 inhibitor geldanamycin for nanoencapsulation in poly(ethylene glycol)-b- poly(caprolactone) micelles," J. Controlled Release, 116, 139-149 (2006).
• R. Vakil and G. S. Kwon, "Polyethylene glycol-b-poly(caprolactone) and PEG-phospholipid for stable mixed micelles in aqueous media," Langmuir, 22, 9723-9729 (2006).
• S. Croy and G. S. Kwon, "Polysorbate 80 and cremophor el micelles deaggregate and solubilize nystatin at the core-corona interface," J. Pharm. Sci., 94, 2345-2354 (2005).
• G. N. Ton, J. P. Weichert, M. A. Longino, J. P. Fine, and G. S. Kwon, "Methoxypoly(ethylene glycol)-conjugated carboxypeptidase A for solid tumor targeting. part II. pharmacokinetics and biodistribution in normal and tumor-bearing rodents," J. Controlled Release, 104, 155-166 (2005).
• M. Xiong and G. S. Kwon, "Pegylation of cytosine deaminase for pretargeting," J. Pharm. Sci., 94, 1249-1258 (2005).
• C. Chong, M. Cao, K. Fischer, B. Addison, G. Kwon, L. Tyrell, and J. Samuel, "Enhancement of th1 cellular immune responses against hbcag by plga nanoparticle vaccine delivery," J. Controlled Release, 102, 85-99 (2005).