Post Doc Fellow
Merck & Co., Inc.
My name is Jungsoo Park Ph.D., currently a Post Doc Fellow at Merck and Co.Inc at Merck Research Laboratories (MRL) in the Discovery Pharmaceutical Sciences Department. My postdoctoral work focuses on developing biomaterial platforms based on hydrogel formulations to address the formulation and delivery challenges of biologics. Especially, I am developing innovative hydrogel formulation approaches for controll drug delivery and enhanced product storage stability of biologics.
I have received my M.S in Bioengineering at University of Washington Seattle and obtained my Ph.D in interdisciplinary biological sciences at Northwestern University in Prof. Chad Mirkin's research group. During my Ph.D. study, I have identifed a new method incorporating divalent calcium ion instead of conventional monovalent sodium ion during oligonucleotide functionalization process to formulate nanoparticle-oligonucleotide conjugate termed spherical nucleic acids. I discovered that the new formulation method can enhance nanoparticle constructs’ cellular uptake and cytosolic delivery and consequently lead to significantly improved cytosolic mRNA detection and siRNA mediated gene silencing activity across different cancer cell lines and different gene targets.
I am more than welcome to connect with everyone during the AAPS national biotechnology conference!