Shelby Doyle (KOEHLER LAB)

Small Molecule Targeting of FOXA1 in Hormone-dependent Cancers

FOXA1 is an attractive therapeutic target in hormone-dependent cancers, like prostate cancer and breast cancer, but the therapeutic relevance and underlying biology of this transcription factor are not well understood due to a lack of available tools. This talk will highlight the utility of small molecules to answer therapeutic and mechanistic questions in biology and provide motivation for developing small molecule chemical probes for FOXA1 in the context of hormone-dependent cancer.

Malvika Verma (LANGER LAB)

Gastroretentive Devices for Large Dose Drug Delivery

Poor patient adherence to treatment regimens contributes to prolonged infectiousness and death. Here, we propose novel gastric-resident devices for controlled release drug delivery to simplify treatment regimens and thereby prevent the development of drug resistance arising from patient noncompliance. The gastrointestinal tract offers multiple advantages over currently available injectable depot formulations, including ease of administration, lack of immunologic reactions limiting drug release, and the ability to accommodate gram-level dosing.