Dr. Rebekah Drezek

Rebekah Drezek, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Department of Bioengineering,
Associate Professor
Electrical & Computer Engineering
Rice University
Houston, Texas

"Optical Activatable Nanoparticles for Targeted Imaging and Therapy for Cancer"

This seminar will overview research underway at Rice University to develop optically activatable nanoparticles for molecular targeted integrated imaging and therapy of cancer. The seminar will describe how our concept of what makes a nanoparticle “active” has evolved over the past five years illustrating this evolution through a series of case studies involving several types of progressively complicated engineered nanostructures. Platform technologies systems to be discussed will include core-shell and multi-layered nanostructures for scatter-based imaging and photothermal therapy of cancer, enzyme activatable quantum dot probes, and a siRNA-based molecular beacon whose optical response is activated upon binding sequence specific mRNA while mediating RNA interference. The seminar will emphasize the opportunities photonics-based imaging modalities offer in optimizing the diagnostic and therapeutic efficacy of engineered nanomaterials in vivo.

Dr. Rebekah Drezek is an Associate Professor of Bioengineering and Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Rice University where she has been on the faculty since 2002. Her lab conducts basic science, applied, and translational research at the intersection of medicine, photonics, and nanotechnology towards the development of novel in vivo molecular imaging approaches with a focus on screening, detection, and monitoring of cancer. Over the past five years, Dr. Drezek’s research team has received >$9M in grant support from the NIH, NSF, DOD Congressionally Directed Medical Research Program, Beckman Foundation, Welch Foundation, Coulter Foundation Translational Research Program, and Center for Biological and Environmental Nanotechnology among others. Her group has active clinical trials of new imaging technologies underway at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center. Dr. Drezek is the principal investigator on a multi-million dollar inter-institutional Rice University and M.D. Anderson Cancer Center project developing needle-based high resolution optical imaging approaches and nanoengineered imaging agents for breast cancer applications and serves as Thrust Director of a NSF Engineering Research Center on IR Technologies for Health and the Environment. Dr. Drezek was named one of the top 100 technology innovators in the world (MIT TR100) in 2004, received the American Association for Medical Instrumentation Career Achievement Award in 2005, was 1of 4 US scientists invited to present to the NAE Frontiers in Engineering on nanotechnology in 2006, and received the DOD Era of Hope Award for breast cancer research in 2007 and the American Society for Photobiology Early Career Award in 2008. Dr. Drezek serves on the IEEE Nanotechnology Council and as annual co-chair of a SPIE conference on optical technologies for health and the environment.