Principal Investigators
Jindřich Henry Kopeček
Distinguished Professor of Molecular Pharmaceutics, and of Biomedical Engineering
Email: jindrich.kopecek@utah.edu
Henry received his Ph.D. in Macromolecular Chemistry from the Institute of Macromolecular Chemistry (IMC) and D.Sc. in Chemistry from the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences, Prague. His postdoctoral studies were at the National Research Council of Canada in Ottawa. His research continuously proceeded from the synthesis of biocompatible and self-assembled hydrogels to the development of polymer-drug conjugates, then the generation of drug-free macromolecular therapeutics (DFMT), and finally to multi-antigen T cell hybridizers (MATCH). In addition to generating general scientific knowledge, hydrogels from his laboratory have been transferred to the clinic, polymer-drug conjugates to clinical trials, and drug-free macromolecular systems have an excellent potential for personalizing patient therapies. Henry recently summarized the efforts of his laboratory over the years, presented his approach to interdisciplinary research and shared some suggestions to early career scientists.
Hydrophilic Biomaterials: From Crosslinked and Self-Assembled Hydrogels to Polymer-Drug Conjugates and Drug-Free Macromolecular Therapeutics. J. Kopeček. Invited “Magnum Opus” manuscript. J. Controlled Release 373, 1-22 (2024); https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jconrel.2024.05.012
Jane received her B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Tsinghua University, Beijing, China in 1986, M.S. in Polymer Materials from Dalian Technical University in 1989, and Ph.D. in Biomedical Polymer Science from Peking University in 2001. Following a postdoctoral fellowship at the Department of Physical Chemistry, Institute Curie in Paris, France, Jane joined our lab in 2003. Jane has been working on biomaterials and drug delivery over 30 years, from injectable biodegradable (polyesters i.e. PLA-b-PGA) vaccine-delivery microspheres to new constructs of antibody-drug conjugates, in particular N-(2-hydroxypropyl)methacrylamide (HPMA)-based bioconjugates. This design integrates the high specificity of antibody-drug conjugates with advantages of macromolecular therapeutics. Jane’s research interests focus on development of innovative therapeutics for cancer treatment and preclinical translation. Currently, our lab is cooperating with Nanotechnology Characterization Laboratory, National Cancer Institute on the evaluation of our new platform technology, a combined chemo-immunotherapy, which will significantly improve immunotherapy response rate and minimize potential immune-related adverse events.
Graduate Students
Jiahui (Alex) Li
Email: Jiahui.Li@pharm.utah.edu
Jiahui received her B.S. in biology and biochemistry from the University of Nebraska in 2017 and her PharmD degree in 2022 at the University of Utah. Since 2021, she is a PharmD/Ph.D. student in our laboratory. Her research focuses on drug-free macromolecular therapeutics and on the evaluation of tumor microenvironment during combination chemo- and immunotherapy with macromolecular therapeutics.
Shannuo Li
Email: shannuo.li@pharm.utah.edu
Shannuo received her B.S. in Pharmacy in 2020 from Guangzhou Medical University, China and her M.S. in Drug Discovery and Development in 2022 from the Uppsala University, Sweden. Since 2022 she is a Ph.D. student in our laboratory. Her research focuses on Multi-antigen T cell hybridizers and on the design and evaluation of macromolecular therapeutics for brain delivery.
Yingduo Yang
Email: u6052967@utah.edu
Yingduo received his B.S. in Pharmacy from the China Pharmaceutical University in 2021 and his M.S. in Clinical and Experimental Therapeutics in 2023 from the University of Southern California. He joined our laboratory as a researcher in 2024 and from January 2025 he is a PhD student. His project, co-supervised by Drs. J. Yang and P. Shami, focuses on polymer-enhanced antibody-drug conjugates for the treatment of hematologic malignancies.
Emma Welsh
Email: emma.welsh@utah.edu
Emma received her B.S. in Biomedical Engineering (minor in music) in 2021 from Case Western Reserve University. From 2021-2024, she was the Research Operation Manager at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, MA. In the Fall of 2024, she joined the Department of Biomedical Engineering as a PhD student. Following first semester rotations, she joined our lab as a PhD student in January 2025. Her project, supervised by Drs. J. Kopeček and J. Yang will focus on the design and evaluation of macromolecular therapeutics for the treatment of cancer.
Staff
Monika Sima
Senior Lab Specialist was educated and worked in Europe (Czech Republic, Germany). She was a lab member from 2001 to 2013. She will participate in the design, synthesis and in vitro and in vivo evaluation of nanomedicines. Welcome back, Monika!
BS/MS Students
Isaac Kendell
Email: u0916614@utah.edu
Isaac is a BS/MS student in Biomedical Engineering. His research focuses on T cell exhaustion and remediation in multi-antigen T cell hybridization (MATCH), a new technology developed in our laboratory.
Lara Schlickmann
Email: u1396536@utah.edu
Lara is a BS student in Biomedical Engineering who joined our lab in 2024.
Professor Emerita
Pavla Kopečková
Email: Pavla.Kopeckova@utah.edu
Pavla retired in March 2011. She was appointed Research Professor Emerita. She is still involved in Kopecek group research life, attending group meetings, reviewing reports, proposals, and manuscripts.