Gene Therapies Enabled by Lipid Nanoparticles are Revolutionizing Medicine

The Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences is excited to have Dr. Pieter Cullis share his work. Here is a brief bio on Dr. Studer.

Pieter R. Cullis, Professor, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of British Columbia. Dr. Cullis and co-workers have been responsible for fundamental advances in the development of nanomedicines employing lipid nanoparticle (LNP) technology for cancer therapies, gene therapies and vaccines. This work has contributed to five drugs that have been approved by the FDA, the EMA and other regulatory bodies. These include Onpattro (the first RNAi drug to receive regulatory approval) to treat the previously fatal hereditary condition transthyretin-induced amyloidosis (hATTR), as well as Comirnaty, the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 mRNA vaccine.

Dr. Cullis has also co-founded more than 10 biotechnology companies that now employ over 500 people, has published over 400 scientific articles and is an inventor on over 100 patents. He co-founded two Canadian National Centre of Excellence networks, the Centre for Drug Research and Development (now AdMare) in 2004 and the NanoMedicines Innovation Network in 2019. Dr. Cullis has received many awards including the Order of Canada in 2021 and the VinFuture Prize (Vietnam), the Prince Mahidol Award (Thailand), the Gairdner International Award (Canada) and the Tang Prize (Taiwan) in 2022. Professor Cullis was made a Fellow of the Royal Society (London) in 2023 and was elected to the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame in 2024.