Hua Pan, PhD, completed her undergraduate training in biomedical engineering (BME) with emphases on electrical engineering for medical device design and computer engineering for medical signal/imaging analysis. She also earned a Master in Medicine degree in China prior to her BME Master of Engineering degree study at Case Western Reserve University, where she combined electrophysiology and ultrasound to define the molecular mechanism of ultrasound facilitated gene/drug delivery, which has been cited over 380 times. In her Ph.D. training at Washington University in St Louis, she focused on identifying determinant protein domains governing voltage sensing and gate opening mechanisms of the cardiac IKs channel, which is a pathological determinant of the high mortality “Long QT Syndrome”.
Those identified protein domains served as a road map for in silico discovery of potential therapeutic targets and design of pharmaceutical therapies. Her current research involves the basic conception, development, and clinical application of novel nanostructures that serve as safe and effective delivery vehicles for any class of therapeutic nucleotides. Her key interests are novel nanostructures that serve as safe and effective delivery vehicles for any class of therapeutic nucleotides; the mechanistic understanding and prevention of cancer treatment-induced toxicities that can limit continuation of effective therapy and result in undertreatment.