Samir El-Andaloussi
Department of Laboratory Medicine, Karolinska Institutet
Samir El-Andaloussi is a professor of Biomolecular Medicine and Advanced Therapies at Karolinska Institutet, Sweden. He is Principal Investigator for the Biomolecular Medicine lab at the Department of Laboratory Medicine. He is also Head of Division for Biomolecular and Cellular Medicine within the department. Andaloussi is also newly appointed Director of research at the Karolinska ATMP center. Additionally, he is also co-founder of, and scientific adviser for, Evox Therapeutics that develops engineered extracellular vesicles (EVs) for treatment of genetic diseases. Samir has worked on various aspects related to non-viral extrahepatic delivery of RNA and protein therapeutics, now with emphasis on the use engineered EVs for various biomedical applications.
Bioengineering extracellular vesicles for targeted delivery of therapeutics
Extracellular vesicles (EVs) have emerged as important mediators of intercellular communication due to their ability to transfer bioactive lipids, proteins and different species of RNA into cells. Thus, EVs hold therapeutic potential in their own right and can additionally be harnessed for the delivery of macromolecular drugs. Adapting EVs for drug delivery requires cellular engineering that allows for selective loading of biotherapeutics inside or on the surface of EVs. This presentation will cover our recent developments in EV engineering to optimize surface display or drug loading. In addition to addressing PK and PD of EVs in normal and diseased mice, strategies to enhance tissue targeting and functional delivery of different proteins and RNAs for gene editing applications in vivo will be described.