03/24/2023
By Danielle Fretwell
The Francis College of Engineering, Department of Chemical Engineering, invites you to attend a Doctoral dissertation defense by Nermin Ibreljic on “Adeno-Associated Virus (AAV) Packaged Transgene Size Effect on Viral Production, Separation, and Stability."
Candidate Name: Nermin Ibreljic
Degree: Doctoral
Defense Date: Friday, April 7, 2023
Time: 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Location: Shah 308
There will also be a virtual defense via Zoom. Those interested in attending should contact the student (nermin_ibreljic@student.uml.edu) and committee advisor (carl_lawton@uml.edu) at least 24 hours prior to the defense to request access to the meeting.
Committee
- Advisor Carl Lawton, Associate Professor, Chemical Engineering, UMass Lowell
- Donging Xie, Associate Professor, Chemical Engineering, UMass Lowell
- Jin Xu, Professor, Chemistry, UMass Lowell
Brief Abstract:
Gene therapy is an approach that treats genetic disorders by introducing engineered genetic material into cells to elicit a therapeutic response. Currently, adeno-associated virus (AAV) is the most actively investigated viral vector for gene therapy because of its wide range of available serotypes for tissue specificity, relatively low immune response, and its lack of integration into the host cell genome. This work studied the impact of the transgene size on AAV production, purification, and stability. AAV2-GFP was produced using suspension adapted HEK293 cells via triple transfection with three different sizes of single stranded green fluorescent protein (GFP) transgene consisting of 1.9, 3.4, and 4.9 kbp (ITR to ITR).
All interested students and faculty members are invited to attend the defense.