Darin Y. Furgeson, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor of Pharmaceutics and Pharmaceutical Chemistry at the University of Utah. He also holds adjunct appointments in the Departments of Pediatrics, Chemical Engineering, and Bioengineering, and Pharmacology/Toxicology. Before joining the University of Utah in 2009, Furgeson was an Assistant Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison from 2005-2008. In 1998 he graduated from the University of Utah with a B.Sc. in Chemical Engineering followed by a Masters in Chemical Engineering in 2000. Under the direction of Distinguished Professor Sung Wan Kim, an internationally known expert in drug and gene delivery, he earned his Ph.D. in Pharmaceutics and Pharmaceutical Chemistry at the University of Utah in 2003. Furgeson then joined Dr. Ashutosh Chilkoti, the Theo Pilkington Professor of Biomedical Engineering, at Duke University as a post-doctoral researcher from 2003-2005. At Duke, Furgeson broadened his technical and knowledge base by moving from synthetic polymer chemistry and gene delivery to molecular biology, protein engineering, and novel drug delivery designs with thermo-responsive elastin-like polypeptide (ELP)-based recombinant biopolymers. Furgeson's primary research interests are in interventional oncology, targeted drug delivery, siRNA gene therapy across the blood brain barrier for neurodegenerative disorders, nanotoxicology, and pediatric environmental health.
Furgeson has numerous collaborations with the Departments of Interventional Oncology, Surgical Oncology, Electrical Engineering, Bioengineering, Pediatric Pathology, Pediatrics, and the Huntsman Cancer Institute in addition to the Nanotechnology Characterization Laboratory (NCL), and NIH. Current disease targets include: liver cancer, breast cancer, melanoma, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS; Lou Gehrig's Disease), and brain tumors. Specifically, the Furgeson Lab's research foci are:
1. Cleaning Dirty Tumor Margins with Synchronous Thermo-targeted Chemotherapy and Microwave Thermal Ablation. (Interventional Oncology and Targeted Drug Delivery)
2. Neuro-targeted siRNA Delivery across the Blood Brain Barrier to Treat ALS and Brain Tumors. (Gene Therapy)
3. Establishing the Zebrafish as a Whole Organism Nanotoxicity Model for Pediatric Environmental Health. (Nanotoxicology; Pediatric Environmental Health)
Furgeson has published several papers in cell- and site-specific drug delivery, gene delivery, and nanotoxicity. A primary area of research is simultaneous destruction of the tumor core by microwave thermal ablation and induction of hyperthermic isotherms at the tumor margins for thermo-targeted chemotherapy. This thermo-targeted system makes use of clinically accepted microwave thermal ablation, biocompatible ELP-based diblock bio-copolymers and hybrid bioorganic-copolymers, and potent chemotherapeutics, which suffer from poor water-solubility and the use of toxic and antiquated delivery vehicles. Furgeson is developing novel microwave antenna designs for real-time 3D antenna placement and quasi-spherical ablation volumes extending from the microwave tip for use in interventional oncology and cardiology. Furgeson has extended the seminal model proposed by Helmut Ringsdorf in 1975, to recombinant, biopolymer and hybrid bioorganic ¿macromolecular solubilizers¿. The Furgeson Lab has pioneered polymeric cloning as the means to control numerous physicochemical parameters of recombinant biopolymers. This unparalleled genetic scheme provides facile control of modularity, architectural design, inclusion of enviro-sensitive motifs, and resulting monodisperse molecular weights, to name but a few, for rapid pre-clinical development of novel drug delivery vehicles. Such control has yet to be realized in synthetic polymer systems. The polymeric cloning blueprints provide schematics for developing a rigorous biomaterial platform, a drug delivery matrix with easily exchanged functional blocks for conjugation of small molecules, peptides, proteins, nucleic acids, and/or imaging agents; blocks for thermo-targeting, increased drug solubility, or extended half-life; and N- and/or C-terminal groups for mono- or multi-modal expression of targeting ligands such as antibodies, peptides, scFvs, aptamers, and beyond. Genetically engineered biopolymers are the next generation of drug delivery vehicles. All recombinant biopolymer systems are expressed in bacterial cultures and non-chromatographically purified by alternating cold and hot cycles with negligible endotoxin levels. With collaboration from Surgical Oncology, Furgeson hopes to initiate Phase I clinical trials of ELP-based drug delivery vehicles in late 2011 or early 2012.
siRNA gene therapy across the blood brain barrier incorporates an electrostatic condensing block and putative neuro-targeting domains to facilitate transcytosis across the blood brain barrier. Current mRNA targets encode for pro-oncogenic pathways in brain tumors and oxidative stress pathways in ALS and other neurodegenerative diseases. Thermosensitive ELP is utilized as a non-chromatographic purification tag to produce the neuro-targeted siRNA carriers.
Nanotoxicology is a rapidly growing field of research with applications in bioengineering, environmental toxicology, clinical medicine, and pediatric environmental health. Furgeson is establishing the zebrafish as a whole organism model to assay nanotoxicity. Zebrafish have > 80% DNA homology with humans, are transparent, and possess corresponding organs to humans except for lungs and a two-chambered heart. Zebrafish also possess a patent blood brain barrier. Vast arrays of engineered nanomaterials are currently under study including: gold and silver nanoparticles, carbon nanotubes, silica-coated nanoparticles, C60-derivatives, and mining waste contaminants such as uranium, arsenic, mercury, and lead. FDA-approved polymers used in drug delivery, polymers in pre-clinical trials, cytotoxins and their derivatives are also being tested. All nanotoxicology screens are related as a function of physicochemical metrics such as particle size, surface functionalization, morphology, and surface charge.
Furgeson has presented his work at numerous conferences and symposia both domestic and international. He has also served on several NSF, NIH, EU, and other international grant review panels on nanomaterials, cancer nanotechnology, drug and gene delivery platforms, translational oncology, and nanotoxicology. He is an active member of AACR, AAPS, ACS, ASGCT, CRS, STM, and SOT.
