DONG RESEARCH GROUP

DRUG DISCOVERY & DELIVERY LABORATORY

Yizhou Dong

Yizhou Dong, Ph.D.

Professor, Icahn Genomics Institute

Precision Immunology Institute

Department of Immunology and Immunotherapy

Department of Oncological Sciences

Tisch Cancer Institute

Friedman Brain Institute

Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

Email: yizhou.dong@mssm.edu 

Biography

Yizhou Dong is a Professor at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. He received his B.S. in pharmaceutical sciences from Peking University Health Science Center and M.S. in organic chemistry from Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry. In 2009, he received his Ph.D. degree in pharmaceutical sciences from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC-CH) under the supervision of Professor K.-H. Lee. From 2010 to 2014, he was a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Professors Robert Langer and Daniel Anderson at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dr. Dong joined OSU College of Pharmacy as an Assistant Professor in 2014, and was promoted to Associate Professor in 2018. His research focuses on the design and development of biotechnology platforms for the treatment of genetic disorders, infectious diseases, and cancers. Dr. Dong has authored over one hundred papers and patents. Several of his inventions have been licensed and are currently under development as drug candidates for clinical trials. He serves as a scientific advisory board member for Arbor Biotechnologies and Sirnagen Therapeutics. Dr. Dong is the recipient of multiple awards, such as Maximizing Investigators’ Research Award from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS), Ohio State Early Career Innovator of the Year, and The American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (AAPS) Emerging Leader Award. Dr. Dong is an elected fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE) and also an elected fellow of the National Academy of Inventors.

Employment

  • 2022-            Professor, Icahn Genomics Institute, Marc and Jennifer Lipschultz Precision Immunology Institute, Department of Oncological Sciences, The Tisch                       Cancer Institute, The Friedman Brain Institute, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
  • 2022-            Adjunct Professor, College of Pharmacy, The Ohio State University (OSU)
  • 2021-2022   Member, Pelotonia Institute for Immune-Oncology, Center for Cancer Engineering, Center for Cancer Metabolism, OSU
  • 2018-2022   Associate Professor, College of Pharmacy, OSU
  • 2014-2022   Member, Center for Clinical and Translational Science, Comprehensive Cancer Center, Dorothy M. Davis Heart & Lung Research Institute,                                     Radiation Oncology, Biomedical Engineering, OSU
  • 2014-2018   Assistant Professor, College of Pharmacy, OSU

Education

  • 2014- Postdoctoral Fellow, Drug Delivery and RNA Therapeutics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology & Harvard Medical School
  • 2009- PhD, Medicinal and Pharmaceutical Chemistry, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
  • 2005- MS, Organic Chemistry, Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry
  • 2002- BS, Pharmaceutical Science, Peking University

Certificate

  • Certificate in Applied Biostatistics, Harvard Medical School
  • Teaching Certificate, Teaching and Learning Laboratory Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Awards and Honors

  • Ewha Global Fellow of Ewha Womans University, 2024
  • Fellow of The National Academy of Inventors, 2023
  • Elected Fellow of The American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE), 2022
  • Chinese Association for Biomaterials (CAB) Mid-Career Award, 2022
  • American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (AAPS) Emerging Leader Award, 2020
  • Scholarship for Healthcare Innovation and Entrepreneurship Workshop at OSU, 2018
  • Young Investigator Award by The Oligonucleotide Therapeutics Society, 2018
  • 2018 Nano Research Young Innovator Awards (NR45) in NanoBiotech, 2018
  • 2018 Young Innovator in Cellular and Molecular Bioengineering, 2018
  • Ohio State Early Career Innovator of the Year, 2018
  • Cellular and Molecular Bioengineering Conference Rising Star Award, 2018
  • NIGMS-Maximizing Investigators’ Research Award (MIRA) (R35), 2016-2021
  • 40 Under 40 awards Columbus Business First, 2017
  • AAPS Foundation New Investigator Grant, 2016
  • Research Project Award of The National PKU Alliance (NPKUA), 2016-2018
  • Early Career Investigator Award from Bayer Hemophilia Awards Program, 2015-2017
  • Translational Therapeutics Voucher Support, The Center for Clinical and Translational Science, 2015
  • Research Reward, Trilink Biotechnologies, 2015
  • American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (AAPS) Postdoctoral Fellow Awards, 2014
  • Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) Postdoctoral Fellowship, 2013
  • NIH F32 Ruth L. Kirschstein NRSA Postdoctoral Fellowship, 2013 
  • AAPS Graduate Student Award in Drug Design and Discovery, 2009    
  • The Rho Chi Pharmacy Honor Society, 2009
  • Graduate Travel Award at UNC, 2009
  • Beijing Outstanding Graduates, 2002
  • Fellowship of Peking University, 1999-2002
  • Beijing Outstanding Undergraduate Students, 1999

Professional Services

  • Grant reviewer for multiple agencies including: National Institute of Health; American Association for the Advancement of Science; American Institute of Biological Sciences; Department of Defense; National Science Foundation; American Chemical Society; New Jersey Alliance for Clinical and Translational Science; The Israel Science Foundation; The Wellcome Trust/DBT India Alliance; French National Research Agency (ANR); Cystic Fibrosis Trust (UK); Research Grants Council (RGC) of Hong Kong; The Dutch Research Council (NWO); Slovak Academy of Sciences; The Swedish Research Council; Canada Research Coordinating Committee.
  • Board member of the Controlled Release Society Focus Groups: Gene Delivery and Editing (GDE)
  • Scientific advisory board member of Arbor Biotechnologies and Sirnagen Therapeutics.
  • Co-founder of Immunanoengineering Therapeutics
  • Guest editor: Accounts of Chemical Research for a special issue of mRNA therapeutics
  • Guest editor: iScience for a special issue of Nanotechnology and biomaterials-enabled immunoengineering
  • Editorial Board for Bioactive Materials, Biomaterials Science
  • Associate editor: Frontiers in Immunology; Cancer Research Communications