Dr. Jinming Gao is a Professor of Oncology and Pharmacology at UT Southwestern Medical Center. He also holds a joint appointment in Chemistry and Bioengineering at UT Dallas. He is also the Chair of Gene and Drug Delivery Study Section at NIH. More »

The Gao lab is working at the interface of nanotechnology, cancer biology and clinical oncology. Our primary research interest is to design and develop novel nanomaterials and nanoarchitectures for cancer diagnosis and targeted therapeutic applications. One of our recent inventions is a library of "pH transistor" nanoparticles with binary off/on reporters that are finely tunable in a broad range of physiological pH (4.0-7.4). The ultra pH-sensitive property is a unique nanoscale phenomenon that arises from the cooperative self-assembly of amphiphilic copolymers. These new nanotools uncovered unprecendented biological insights on tumor acidosis, lysosome signaling and metabolism, and cytosolic delivery of biologics. Based on these knowledge, we are implementing the pH transistor technology in several clinically relevant applications, including cancer staging, image-guided surgery, and immunotherapy.

A systematic investigation on noncovalent interactions that affect the pH responsive behaviors and the resulting supramolecular selfassembly of a series of ultra-pH sensitive (UPS) block copolymers was reported (Polym. Chem).PDF

A review paper titled "Investigation of Endosome and Lysosome Biology by Ultra pH Sensitive Nanoprobes" was published on Advanced Drug Delivery Reviews. PDF

Welcome Lina Albeer and Layla Samandi to join the lab, who will provide technical assistance to the whole lab.

A nanobuffer reporter library was developed for interrogations of endosome/lysosome biology. Unique luminal pH-dependent link between mTOR signaling, lysosome catabolism and cell survival was uncovered. Nature Comm.