Edwin and Dorothy Gamewell Professor

Shaoqin Sarah Gong, PhD

University of Wisconsin
Wisconsin Institute for Discovery
McPherson Eye Research Institute
Madison, WI

PROFESSIONAL BACKGROUND AND RESEARCH STATEMENT

Dr. Gong received her BS and MS in Materials Science and Engineering from Tsinghua University in Beijing, China, in 1991 and 1994, respectively. She went on to obtain her PhD in Materials Science and Engineering from the University of Michigan–Ann Arbor in 1999. She spent time as a Senior Materials Scientist in Research and Development at the Henkel Corporation from 1999 to 2002. She then became an Assistant Scientist at the Polymer Engineering Center in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at UW–Madison from 2002 to 2005. From 2005–2008, she was an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and the Department of Materials at UW–Milwaukee and was later promoted to Associate Professor in 2008. In 2010, she returned to UW–Madison as an Associate Professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering, rising to the rank of full professor in 2014.

RESEARCH AREAS

• Nanomedicines
• Biomaterials
• CRISPR genome editing
• Tissue engineering scaffolds

The Gong Lab has designed, synthesized, and evaluated various types of multifunctional drug, nucleic acid, protein, and peptide, and imaging agent nanocarriers for targeted treatment and monitoring of various major health threats, including eye diseases, cancers, vasculopathies, and brain diseases. For instance, they have engineered a number of nanoparticle- and/or microparticle-based drug delivery systems to treat retinitis pigmentosa, glaucoma, and retinopathy of prematurity (ROP). In a separate collaboration with Dr. David Gamm’s and Dr. Jack Ma’s labs, Dr. Gong’s lab has engineered and patented several generations of 3D micro-structured scaffolds to enhance photoreceptor delivery efficiency and to support photoreceptor polarization and maturation. This UW collaborative team is currently testing the photoreceptor-seeded scaffolds in pigs in collaboration with colleagues at the National Eye Institute.  They are also in the process of engineering the next generation of 3D micro-structured scaffolds for the co-delivery of photoreceptors and RPE cells to treat macular degeneration.

Dr. Gong is highly productive both in terms of publication record and funding. Currently, she is managing 15 active research grants, including nine from the NIH, one from the Department of Defense, and three from different research foundations. Among these 15 active grants, five of them are related to eye diseases, including a NIH R24 grant focused on developing novel gene therapies for LCA and Best disease, and the DoD grant aimed at developing novel 3D micro-structured scaffolds for photoreceptor and RPE cells to treat servicemen and women blinded by laser-based weapons or explosive devices. She is the co-inventor of 15 US patents and 16 US pending patents. She has published nearly 200 peer-reviewed papers in highly impactful journals (such as Nature Nanotechnology, Nature Communication, Nature Cell Biology, Nature, and Advanced Materials), garnering nearly 15,000 citations with an H-index of 71. Dr. Gong served as an Associate Editor for Biomaterials and is currently an editorial board member for the journals Biomaterials, Theranostics, Nanotheranostics, and Biofabrication, and is an Advisory Board Member for the journal Biomaterials Science. She is a fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering and has won a number of prestigious awards.