Thomas Binns
Yale University, CT·Biomedical Engineering·Early-career
Phagocytes are immune cells that engulf particles and other cells, and in some diseases they cause harm. In antibody-mediated erythrophagocytosis (AME), antibodies mark a person's own red blood cells, and phagocytes then destroy them.
- Fields
Biomedical Engineering
Medicine & Clinical Research
Microbiology & Immunology
- Topics
nanoparticle drug delivery
poly(amine-co-ester)
polymeric nanoparticles
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Jun 2029
What they work on
- Determine how PACE nanoparticle size, charge, stiffness, surface hydrophobicity and dose affect uptake by specific phagocyte subgroups in the liver and spleen of healthy mice, using highly multiplexed flow cytometry.
- Test how these nanoparticle design rules change in a mouse model of antibody-mediated erythrophagocytosis, in which immune cells destroy antibody-coated red blood cells.
- Develop a preclinical nucleic acid therapeutic for antibody-mediated erythrophagocytosis that is delivered to phagocytes by biodegradable poly(amine-co-ester) nanoparticles.
More about the research
Most tiny drug carriers given into the bloodstream end up inside phagocytes in the liver and spleen. That is a problem for many drugs, but it could be an advantage for treating phagocyte-driven diseases. The open question is how to steer these carriers toward particular types of phagocytes, in both healthy and diseased conditions.
Why it matters
Antibody-mediated erythrophagocytosis underlies diseases such as warm autoimmune hemolytic anemia. That disease affects an estimated 40,000 people in the US, relapses in about half of patients, and has 10% mortality. A longer-lasting nanoparticle-delivered nucleic acid therapy with fewer drug side effects could offer a new option for patients with relapsed or treatment-resistant disease and could reduce their need for transfusions.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Krystalyn Hudson
University of Virginia, VA·Microbiology & Immunology
Test whether red blood cell units rich in reticulocytes, young red cells that still contain mitochondria, raise alloantibody rates after transfusion, using mouse models that mimic repeat blood donation.
Kagya Amoako
University of New Haven, CT·Biomedical Engineering
Formulate and characterize a library of lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) varying in size, charge, PEGylation (a polyethylene glycol coating), and surface ligand chemistry, and determine how these properties change binding to platelets, white cells, red cells, and plasma proteins.
Joel Sunshine
Johns Hopkins University, MD·Biomedical Engineering
Test whether nanoparticle delivery of plasmid DNA encoding MHC transactivators, master switches for antigen-display genes, or interferon-pathway genes increases antigen presentation by tumor cells.
The school
Yale University: 73 labs on PI Pages, $1.5B a year on research, 438 research doctorates a year.
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