Ravindra Kane
P.K. Lashmet Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Speaker
Ravindra Kane
is the P. K. Lashmet Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering at
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI). Dr. Kane received a B.S. in Chemical
Engineering with distinction from Stanford University in 1993 and a Ph.D. in
Chemical Engineering from MIT in 1998. After postdoctoral research in the
Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Harvard University, Dr. Kane
joined Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute as an assistant professor in
2001. He was promoted to associate professor in 2006, to professor in
2007, and to the P.K. Lashmet Professor in 2008. In 2004, he was
recognized by MIT’s Technology Review Magazine as one of the top 100
young innovators in the world. In 2008, he received a young investigator award
from the AIChE Nanoscale Science and Engineering Forum, a NYSTAR faculty
development award, and was selected as the Dr. G.P. Kane Visiting Professor in
Chemical Engineering at the University Institute of Chemical Technology,
Bombay, India. In 2009, he received a young investigator award from the
ACS Biochemical Technology Division. The Kane group’s research
interests lie at the interface of biotechnology and nanotechnology. His
group is designing nanoscale polyvalent therapeutics and working on the
molecular engineering of biosurfaces and nanostructures.
Presentation Summary
Some of the major health threats of modern times
come from pathogens. Countering them requires the design of novel therapeutics.
This talk describes two bio-inspired strategies for therapeutic design.
Polyvalency is one common concept. It refers to
the simultaneous binding of multiple molecules on one biological entity (eg a
virus) to multiple binding partners on another entity (eg a target cell).
Polyvalency can increase the strength of interactions by orders of magnitude.
We are designing synthetic polyvalent molecules that can neutralize pathogens
or bacterial toxins.
The second strategy makes use of molecules found
in nature, such as enzymes. The stability of enzymes can be increased
significantly by attaching them to nanomaterials. When these
nanomaterial-enzyme conjugates are incorporated into coatings and used to cover
areas where pathogens attach, they can eliminate antibiotic-resistant bacteria,
such as methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). We are currently exploring
enzyme-based approaches to fight spores, the difficult-to-kill dormant form of
bacteria.
