James Vetro Email Address

Mescal Swaim Ferguson Distinguished Professor and Director, Center for Nanotechnology In Drug Delivery

A vital enterprise in the nation's heartland, the University of Nebraska Medical Center has its eye on improving the future of health care in Nebraska and beyond. As Nebraska's only public academic health sciences center, UNMC is committed to the education of a 21st century health care work force, to finding cures and treatments for devastating diseases, to providing the best care for patients, and to serving our state and its communities through award-winning outreach. UNMC also is committed to embracing the richness of diversity, and is a major economic engine for the state of Nebraska. Led by Chancellor Jeffrey P. Gold, MD, UNMC has six colleges and two institutes, serving about 3,700 students in more than two dozen programs. UNMC's primary care program was recently ranked fourth in the nation by U.S. News & World Report, and its physician assistant program was ranked ninth. The university's physical therapy, pharmacy, and public health programs also are ranked among the top in the country.

Dr. Alexander Kabanov is a leader in polymer therapeutics. In late 80'-ies while working in Soviet Union he pioneered use of polymeric micelles for drug delivery to the brain and was among the first to develop DNA/polycation complexes for gene delivery. His work using amphiphilic block copolymers to overcome multidrug resistance in cancer led to first human clinical trials of a polymeric micelle drug. In early 90'-ies Dr. Kabanov co-founded Supratek Pharma Inc. (www.supratek.com) in Montreal, Canada and then joined UNMC, where he eventually became a founder and Director of the Center for Drug Delivery and Nanomedicine and NIH Center of Biomedical Research Excellence (CoBRE). He is a professor at the Eshelman School of Pharmacy and co-director of Nanomedicine Institute at UNC Chapel Hill. Dr. Kabanov published over 250 scientific papers, edited several books and has 28 issued US patents. His work led to first-in-man polymeric micelle drug (SP1049C) to treat cancer, which successfully completed Phase II clinical trial and is under further evaluation. His work was cited over 25,000 times (Hirsh index 88). His cumulative research support in academia has been over $54 M as principal investigator. His inventions attracted nearly $60M in industrial support. He co-chaired Gordon Research Conference on Drug Carriers in Medicine and Biology (2006) and co-founded Nanomedicine and Drug Delivery Symposium series (2003-). He chaired Biomaterials and Biointerfaces study section at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in 2006-2008. Dr. Kabanov has been elected member of Academia Europaea (2013), and a recipient of Lenin Komsomol Prize (1988), National Science Foundation (NSF) Career Award (1995), University of Nebraska Outstanding Research and Creative Activity Award (2007), UNMC Scientist Laureate (2009), and Russian "Megagrant" (2010) among other distinctions.