Yali Zhang

Emerging therapies are more likely to rely on the delivery of biological therapeutics to the cytosol. Nanoparticles (NPs) have shown significant potential for delivery and successfully entered clinical use. However, most nanoparticles taken up by endocytosis either accumulate in endosomes and lysosomes or are pumped out through exocytosis, where they are not active for therapeutic functions. Current studies on how to enhance endosomal escape and release are hampered by a lack of quantitative methodology to detect NP delivery efficiency. Dr Zhang is developing quantitative assays to probe endosomal escape and cytosolic delivery of NPs, which provides a better understanding of endocytosis pathways and is beneficial to nanomedicine engineering.