Bikash Pattnaik, PhD, Collaborating on UW2020 Grant

Bikash Pattnaik, PhD
Bikash Pattnaik, PhD

Krishanu Saha, PhD (Biomedical Engineering), will lead a team of investigators, including Co-PIs Shaoqin Sarah Gong, PhD (Biomedical Engineering), Bikash Pattnaik, PhD, and David Gamm, MD, PhD (Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences), and other collaborators, to study genetic disorders of the eye, in their recently awarded UW2020 grant entitled, “Gene Editing Nanomedicines to Correct Pathogenic Mutations in Retinal Pigmented Epithelium.” This 2-year WARF Discovery Initiative project will use advances in biomaterials to generate nonviral, synthetic nanocarriers of CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing machinery for targeted delivery to the retinal pigmented epithelium (RPE) that surrounds the retina. Such research would generally expand the types of tissues that could be edited and hence the spectrum of disease where genomic medicine could have an impact. Support for this research was provided by the University of Wisconsin – Madison Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research and Graduate Education with funding from the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation. More about the award can be found here: https://research.wisc.edu/funding/uw2020/round-4-projects/gene-editing-nanomedicines-mutations-retinal-pigmented-epithelium/