Macrophage engineered vesicles to treat pediatric Osteosarcoma.

One of our MIB Agents OutSmarting Osteosarcoma 2024 grant recipients, Dr. Chris Richards, an Associate Professor from the University of Kentucky provides an overview of his funded work on macrophage engineered vesicles to treat pediatric osteosarcoma. This presentation focuses on the development of nanoscale vesicles derived from immune cells that can be utilized as immunomodulatory and therapeutic delivery platforms. Dr. Richards is a Professor in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Kentucky where he also serves as the Director of the Light Microscopy Facility and the Director of the Bioelectronics and Nanomedicine Center. His lab has developed novel nanoscale biomaterials for therapeutic delivery and in vivo sensing within the central nervous system. Incorporating these materials with nanofabricated devices has enabled his lab to develop new platforms for interrogating biological systems in cell culture, isolated tissue, and in vivo. Research in the Richards lab also focuses on the development of ensemble and single-molecule fluorescence spectroscopy techniques for the study of complex biological systems. His lab has recently applied this approach to study substance use disorders along with the development of therapeutic delivery platforms for cancer and spinal cord injury. Dr. Richards received his bachelor’s degree in chemistry from the University of Maine and his PhD in physical chemistry from the Georgia Institute of Technology. He was also a postdoctoral researcher at Caltech where he was also a Beckman postdoctoral Scholar.