Dr. Thaxton is a tenured Associate Professor in the Department of Urology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, IL. Dr. Thaxton obtained his B.A. from the University of Colorado, Boulder with a major in Environmental Biology and Minor in Biochemistry (with Distinction and Summa Cum Laude). Dr. Thaxton completed his MD (Alpha Omega Alpha) and PhD degrees at Northwestern University. The focus of Dr. Thaxton’s PhD thesis was the development and use of nanoparticles in ultrasensitive diagnostic assays, as agents to facilitate nucleic acid delivery, and translational applications of these types of materials into the clinical realm. Dr. Thaxton’s internship and residency training in General Surgery and Urology was also conducted at Northwestern University prior to joining the Urology Faculty and starting his Laboratory as an Assistant Professor. The focus of The Thaxton Lab is to synthesize, characterize, and deploy nanomaterials that seamlessly interact with biological systems to develop next generation diagnostic assays and therapeutics. To this end, The Thaxton Lab is inspired by native nanoparticles that circulate in the bloodstream called lipoproteins. Specifically, high-density lipoproteins (HDL) function to transport cholesterol and other hydrophobic molecules (e.g., fat soluble vitamins) to cells and tissues throughout the body. Native HDLs possess potent anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidative functions. One challenge with studying native HDLs is that they are difficult to isolate, chemically characterize, and they are highly heterogenous regarding their physical and chemical characteristics and biological functions. To address these challenges, The Thaxton Lab pioneered a nanomaterials platform – high-density lipoprotein-like nanoparticles (HDL NP) – where the properties of the HDL NPs can be exquisitely tailored to realize enhanced HDL NP function(s). The synthesis of HDL NPs was a particularly important breakthrough as The Thaxton Lab presented a “template” or “scaffold” approach to control the self-assembly of protein and lipids on the sub-20 nanometer length scale. Additionally, The Thaxton Lab invented targeted lipoprotein particles to deliver nucleic acid cargo (e.g., siRNA) and exquisitely control gene expression. The research has been supported by grants from Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI), Prostate Cancer Foundation (PCF), Department of Defense (DoD)/ Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR), Veterans Administration (VA), National Institutes of Health (NIH)/ National Cancer Institute (NCI), and the V Foundation, to name a few. Dr. Thaxton has received several awards, including a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) from President Obama and the MIT Technology Review’s TR35 Award which honors the top innovators in the world younger than 35. Dr. Thaxton has co-founded three biotech startups, which have provided research-use-only commercial products, licensed diagnostic tests, and have launched several therapeutics into human clinical trials. The Thaxton Lab is currently focused on developing HDL NP that potently target cell surface receptors like scavenger receptor class B type-1 (SR-B1). Chemical tailoring of HDL NPs enables exquisite cell targeting to control redox balance in cancer cells, immune cells, and neurons to understand fundamental metabolic and redox mechanisms toward therapeutic endpoints (e.g., kill cancer cells or rejuvenate neurons).
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