报告题目：Our Journey: Science to Medical Innovation

报  告  人：Hao Li 教授（Professor of Engineering, University of Missouri，President and Founder of Nanova Inc）

时        间：2017年9月18日 15:00

地        点：重庆大学药学院学术报告厅

报告人简历：

Dr. Hao Li, Ph.D., President of Nanova Inc., a biotech start-up based in Columbia, MO.  Nanova is currently developing innovative solutions that may improve the healthcare of patients and general public, particularly in the areas of medical devices, pharmaceuticals, and environmental technologies.  Dr. Li is trained as a materials scientist with bachelor and master degree from Xi’an Jiaotong University and Ph.D. degree from Stevens Institute of Technology and also obtained postdoctoral training from Brown University in nanotechnology. Dr. Li is a recipient of NSF Career Award in 2009. With both entrepreneurial and academic experience, Dr. Li is trying to build bridges between academia, industry, and financial firms in order to create unique values to the society.

报告提要：

Inspired by the fact that both bone and teeth are composites containing calcium phosphate nanofibers, Dr. Li firstly applied a nanocomposite technology in the field of dentistry and orthopedics to develop products with improved strength and better biological properties.  Dr. Li and his colleagues at Nanova are also developing other technologies: a multiple function dental plasma brush for more durable restoration, a coronary stent with reduced restenosis and thrombosis, and novel antimicrobial small compounds with a novel anti-virulence mechanism, which disarm bacteria instead of killing them. 

Notably, the antimicrobial compounds impose less selective pressure for the bacteria and may not lead to drug resistance, a common problem for conventional antibiotics.  Our compounds inhibit the production of virulence factors that are often toxic and allow bacteria to cause diseases within the host. Virulence factors help bacteria invade, colonize, evade and suppress the immune system, and produce toxins that can harm or kill the hosts. Regulation of virulence factors is how bacteria establish an infection, survive in a hostile environment, and cause pathology of specific diseases. Our antivirulence compounds “disarm” bacteria, making them less harmful and allowing the body’s immune system to clear them out of the body.  These compounds can overcome multi-antibiotic resistant “superbugs” and they do not affect the good bacteria in our bodies. Furthermore, unlike conventional antibiotics, these compounds do not directly kill bacteria or block their proliferation, thus will have less selective pressure for generating drug resistance or cross resistance with current antibiotics.