Pieter Cullis

Pieter Cullis is a Canadian physicist and biochemist known for his contributions to the field of lipid nanoparticles.[2] Lipid nanoparticles are essential to current mRNA vaccines as a delivery system.

Pieter Cullis
NationalityCanadian
Alma materUniversity of British Columbia[1]
Known forlipid nanoparticles
Scientific career
Fieldslipid nanoparticles

Research

Cullis received a PhD in physics from the University of British Columbia and then moved to Oxford University to work as a postdoctoral fellow in biochemistry working on NMR. During his time at Oxford, he started to work on lipids. [3] In the 1980s, he established his own laboratory at the University of British Columbia and started to create lipid bilayers and founded Inex Pharmaceuticals, where they researched ways to encapsulate drugs and nucleic acids within the lipid particles.[3] He worked on the development of Patisiran, a drug that uses small interfering RNA delivered via lipid nanoparticles and was FDA approved in 2018.

Awards:[4]

  • Ayerst Award by the Canadian Biochemical Society in 1986
  • B.C. Science Council Gold Medal for Health Sciences in 1991
  • Alec D. Bangham Award for contributions to liposome science and technology in 2000
  • B.C. Biotechnology Association award for Innovation and Achievement in 2002
  • elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 2004
  • Barre award for contributions to Pharmaceutical Sciences by the University of Montreal in 2005
  • UBC Alumni Award for Research in Science and Medicine in 2005
  • Prix Galien Canada award 2011
  • Bill and Marilyn Webber Lifetime Achievement Award
  • Prince Mahidol Award 2021[5]

References
  1. https://lsi.ubc.ca/person/pieter-cullis/
  2. "Meet the Canadian scientist who paved the way for groundbreaking mRNA COVID vaccines | CBC Radio". Retrieved 2021-12-09.
  3. "From lipids to lipid nanoparticles to mRNA vaccines | Nature Reviews Materials". Retrieved 2021-12-09.
  4. "NanoMedicines Research Group". Retrieved 2021-12-09.
  5. https://www.med.ubc.ca/news/dr-pieter-cullis-awarded-prince-mahidol-award-for-ground-breaking-work-on-lipid-nanoparticles/
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