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JENNIFER CRUZ REA jennifer@northwestern.edu  C.V. EDUCATION:
- 4th Year Ph.D. Candidate, Chemical and Biological Engineering; Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, Expected Graduation June 2008 - 2003 B.S., Chemical Engineering; University of California, Berkeley PUBLICATIONS: - De Laporte, L., J. Cruz Rea, and L.D. Shea, Design of modular non-viral gene therapy vectors. Biomaterials, 2006. 27(7): p. 947-954. RESEARCH SUMMARY: The research project that Ms.
Jennifer Rea is undertaking focuses on the development of bioactive
protein polymers and peptides to overcome intracellular trafficking
barriers for enhanced gene delivery for tissue engineering. Since
protein polymers allow for the production of long proteins with
repeated amino acid sequences, protein polymers have the ability to
incorporate many repeated intracellular trafficking motifs to overcome
the intracellular barriers that inhibit gene delivery. In addition,
protein polymers can provide a reactive backbone for conjugating
bioactive peptide side chains, allowing for the production of branched
protein polymers, which provide a different mode of presentation of
intracellular trafficking motifs compared to linear protein polymers.
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