About the Speaker:- Ashish Kulkarni is an Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering at UMass Amherst. He was an Instructor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and an Associate Bioengineer at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. He received his B. Tech. from the Institute of Chemical Technology, India, his PhD from the University of Cincinnati and postdoctoral training from Harvard Medical School/MIT. His lab works on Immuno Engineering, bridging nanoscience, drug delivery and engineering design with manipulating the immune system to address fundamental and translational questions in cancer. His work was published in high-visibility journals (Science Advances, Advanced Materials, Nature BME, PNAS etc.) and featured in several global media outlets. He was selected as one of the top 12 rising researchers, ‘Talented 12’, by C&EN News, a ‘Young Innovator’ in Cellular and Molecular Bioengineering by the Biomedical Engineering Society, and ‘NextGen Star’ in Cancer Research by American Association for Cancer Research. He received the NSF CAREER Award, NIGMS R35 (MIRA) Award, American Cancer Society’s Research Scholar Award.

Abstract:- Immunotherapy has emerged as the new paradigm in cancer treatment. However, durable responses are observed in a limited patient population primarily due to a strong immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment that hampers efficient anti-tumor immune responses. For example, tumors are heavily infiltrated with tumor-associated macrophages, facilitating tumor progression, conferring resistance to chemotherapy, and directly and indirectly mounting an immune suppressive effect on T cells. I will present a nanotechnology-based approach called supramolecular nanotherapeutics, which can focally modulate the tumor immune contexture towards the immune responsive mode with minimal systemic side effects. We have observed that supramolecular nanotherapeutics can exert a sustained tumor regression in multiple immunocompetent syngeneic murine models by efficiently converting immunosuppressive tumor macrophages to effector macrophages.

Monitoring immunotherapy efficacy is challenging due to unconventional response patterns, delayed onset, and variable kinetics. Conventional assessment criteria may not capture these nuances, leading to undertreatment or overtreatment. I will show that real-time imaging of immunotherapy response could be achieved by biologically-inspired engineering of nano reporters that can enable spatiotemporal delivery of an immunotherapy drug and drug function-activatable imaging agent. Developing these nanotechnology-based platform technologies that can improve immunotherapy response and monitor its efficacy early on can significantly impact the outcome and quality of life of patients.