| Meet the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Glen Kwon Professor and Jens T. Carstensen Chair in Pharmaceutical Sciences |
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Research area The Kwon Research Group pioneers advanced polymeric nanotechnology to revolutionize the delivery and effectiveness of anticancer and antifibrotic drugs. By engineering polymeric nanoparticles and polymer-drug conjugates, the team enhances drug circulation time, boosts therapeutic potency and minimizes toxicity—addressing the major limitations of current potent yet toxic treatments. The group’s mission is to design safe, effective nanomedicines that specifically target cancer and fibrosis, with a strong emphasis on clinical translation. Through innovative research and collaboration, the lab strives to bring these next-generation therapies from the laboratory to human clinical trials, with the goal of saving lives and improving patient outcomes.
What excites you about your work?
“Combination therapy is central to cancer treatment. We are using nanoparticles to co-deliver multiple drugs directly to tumors, like reformulating toxic drugs, such as paclitaxel. By packaging different therapies into a single nanoparticle ready for entry into clinical trials, we aim to achieve synergistic effects and minimize harm to healthy tissues.”
What do you hope to achieve?
“Our goal is to bring nanomedicine into clinical practice, creating multimodal therapies that are easy for clinicians to use and safe for patients. For tough diseases like triple-negative breast cancer, innovation must meet practicality.”
Prof. Kwon has done great work advancing the formulation of cancer drugs, which contain toxic components. His new formulations allow increases in the dose of the therapeutic drug by removing the toxic components of old formulations.
– Rafael Diaz, WARF, Licensing Manager
Want to learn more?
Rafael Diaz, [email protected], 608.960.9847