Research Statement

Research Keywords

• siRNA Gene Therapy
• Zebrafish Nanotoxicity Models
• Osteosarcoma
• Nanotoxicology
• Microwave Thermal Ablation
• Interventional Oncology
• Gliomas
• Genetic Engineering
• Drug Delivery across the Blood Brain Barrier
• Drug Delivery Systems
• Blood-Brain Barrier
• Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis
• Alzheimer's Disease

Presentations

• Cleaning dirty tumor margins with thermo-targeted chemotherapy and microwave ablation. (2011) World Conference on Interventional Oncology; New York, New York. Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 06/09/2011.
• siRNA gene therapy across the blood brain barrier for neuro-disease. (2011) Merrimack Pharmaceuticals; Cambridge, MA. Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 04/25/2011.
• Targeted drug delivery across the blood brain barrier.(2011) Crocker Ventures; Salt Lake City, UT. Other, Presented, 03/22/2011.
• Cleaning tumor margins, thermal ablation, and gene therapy across the BBB – research review of the Furgeson Lab. (2011) University of Utah; Imaging, Diagnostics, and Therapeutics (IDT) program meeting; Salt Lake City, UT. Other, Presented, 03/10/2011.
• "Furgeson lab research overview: emphasizing interdisciplinary collaborations across campus" - Nanotechnology Training Program; University of Utah. Presentation, Presented, 08/16/2010.
• "Firing up capacitance-loaded microwave antennas for synergistic thermo-targeted drug delivery" - Dept. of Cardiology and CARMA Group; University of Utah. Presentation, Presented, 07/15/2010.
• "Using drug delivery's big promise to improve cancer therapy to small people" - Center for Children's Cancer Research (C3R) Supergroup; University of Utah. Presentation, Presented, 07/09/2010.
• "Translational research - targeted drug delivery and nanotoxicology" - Dept. of Pediatrics; School of Medicine; University of Utah. Presentation, Presented, 01/05/2010.
• O Bar-Ilan, RM Albrecht, VE Fako, and DY Furgeson. Nanotoxicity assessments of multi-sized silver and gold nanoparticles in zebrafish embryos. (2009) 48th Annual Meeting and Tox Expo; Society of Toxicology; Baltimore, MD, Mar 15-19. Conference Paper, Presented, 2009.
• ER Theisen and DY Furgeson. Nanotoxicity assessments with a whole zebrafish model. (2009) First International Conference on the Environmental Implications of Nanotechnology; Howard University, Washington, D.C., Sept 9-10. Conference Paper, Presented, 2009.
• Nanotherapy and Nanotoxicology: The Schizophrenia of Drug Delivery (2009) University of Utah; Dept. of Chemical Engineering Undergraduate Seminar; Salt Lake City, UT – Mar 10. Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 2009.
• Assessing biomaterial nanotoxicity with zebrafish embryos. (2009) University of Utah; Dept. of Bioengineering; Salt Lake City, UT – Mar 27. Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 2009.
• Microwave thermal ablation and thermosensitive chemotherapeutics. (2009) Huntsman Cancer Institute & Nano Institute of Utah Joint Symposium; Salt Lake City, UT – Apr 27. Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 2009.
• Thermal chemotherapeutics and microwave thermal ablation to eradicate tumor margins. (2009) University of Utah-Inha Drug Delivery and Therapeutics Global R&D Center; Incheon, Korea – Jun 22. Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 2009.
• Nanotoxicity assessments with a whole zebrafish model. (2009) First International Conference on the Environmental Implications of Nanotechnology; Washington, DC – Sept 9. Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 2009.
• Silver nanotoxicity – not just for werewolves anymore. (2009) University of Utah; Dept. of Medicinal Chemistry; Salt Lake City, UT – Oct 29. Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 2009.
• Zebrafish and nanotoxicology – accelerating pre-clinical development. (2009) University of Utah; Dept. of Pharmacology & Toxicology; Salt Lake City, UT – Nov 23. Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 2009.

Research Groups

• Yizhe Chen, Graduate Student. Pharmaceutics and Pharmaceutical Chemistry. 08/01/2009 - present.
• Pilju Youn, Graduate Student. Pharmaceutics and Pharmaceutical Chemistry. 08/01/2009 - present.

Grants, Contracts & Research Gifts

• Microwave Thermal Ablation. PI: Darin Y. Furgeson. Microsulis Medical, Ltd (U.K.), 06/01/2011 - present. Total project budget to date: $60,000.00
• Zebrafish Nanotoxicity Models for Pediatric Environmental Health. PI: Darin Y. Furgeson. Department of Pediatrics, 02/01/2010 - present. Total project budget to date: $35,000.00
• Microwave Thermal Ablation and Thermo-targeted Polymer-Geldanamycin Conjugates for Cancer. PI: Darin Y. Furgeson. Wallace H. Coulter Translational Partners Grant Program, 04/01/2008 - 03/31/2009. Total project budget to date: $70,000.00
• Rapid Pre-Clinical Development and Screening of Polymer-Geldanamycin Conjugates. PI: Darin Y. Furgeson. Nanotechnology Characterization Laboratory, 01/01/2007 - present. Total project budget to date: $0.00

Languages

• English, fluent.

Publications

• Y Chen, P Youn, and DY Furgeson. Thermo-targeted delivery of geldanamycin with diblock elastin-based biopolymers. J Control Rel (2011) 155(2):175-183. Published, 10/2011.
• VE Fako and DY Furgeson. Assessing biomaterial nanotoxicity with a novel zebrafish model. (2009) Adv Drug Del Rev (2009) 61(6):478-486. Published, 2009.
  http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19389433
• DY Furgeson, RN Cohen, RI Mahato, and SW Kim. Novel water insoluble lipoparticulates for gene delivery. Pharm Res (2002) 19(4):382-390. (IF 4.456). Published, 06/2002.
• J Benns, A Maheshwari, DY Furgeson, RI Mahato, and SW Kim. Folate-PEG-Folate-graft-Polyethylenimine-based cytokine gene delivery for cancer treatment. J Drug Target (2001) 9(2):123-139. (IF 3.024). Accepted, 06/2001.