Liping Zhou
Senior Director, Advanced Drug Delivery AstraZeneca
Dr. Liping Zhou is currently a senior director at AstraZeneca Boston R&D center. She is heading the Advanced Drug Delivery – Boston team, developing preclinical and clinical formulations supporting AstraZeneca internal synthetic modality pipeline projects. Dr. Zhou has 20 years of post-PhD technical and managerial experience in research and development functions in the biotechnology/pharmaceutical industry. She has diversified expertise especially in pre-formulation, formulation development and drug delivery technologies focusing on small molecules, peptides, and nucleic acids. She has been actively involved in preclinical and clinical programs, life-cycle management and due diligence projects in multiple therapeutical areas as well as efficiently and strategically managing external collaborations in the US, Europe and Asia. Dr. Zhou’s previous employment includes but not limited to Novartis, Ipsen, and Ra Pharmaceuticals (now UCB). She co-authored more than 20 scientific publications in the leading biomedical journals and book chapters.
Dr. Zhou received her Ph.D. degree in Chemistry from University of Connecticut and her bachelor’s degree from Peking University.
Seminars
- Examining buffer choices during lyophilization to minimize impact on LNP integrity
- Delving into how freeze-drying influences and changes particle structure and critical quality attributes, such as causing blebbing
- Exploring optimal reconstitution methods to maintain LNP morphology and functionality for effective administration
- Uncovering the origins of LNP technology and how they were initially discovered
- Exploring the evolving role of LNPs from early gene delivery systems to their pivotal role in mRNA vaccine development
- Showcasing the key scientific breakthroughs that have shaped modern LNP design
Targeted LNPs are continuing to advance and evolve to enable extrahepatic targeting. However, they are hindered by limited robust analytical strategies. During this workshop deep dive into reliable analytical methods for assessing ligand density, stability and aggregation for more consistent product quality. Topics include:
- Leveraging comprehensive analytics to quantify ligand density to determine uniformity and minimize heterogeneity
- Unlocking advanced analytical strategies to understand ligand stability, linker degradation and free ligands for safer targeted LNPs
- Implementing imaging techniques for assessing aggregation, structural integrity and surface functionalization
