Erkki Ruoslahti

Erkki Ruoslahti is a cancer researcher and distinguished professor at Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute and an adjunct distinguished professor at the University of California Santa Barbara.^[1]

Ruoslahti made seminal contributions to biology of extracellular matrix and its receptors.^[2] He discovered fibronectin, an adhesion molecule that helps make up connective tissues. He also introduced the concept of vascular "zip codes," the idea that each tissue bears molecular signatures that can be targeted by affinity ligands, and used in vivo peptide phage display to prove the concept and develop numerous tumor-homing peptides.^[3] His group has developed a novel class of cell- and tissue-penetrating peptides that can be used for biological delivery of drugs and nanoparticles to extravascular space in tissues.^[4][5] When exposed at the C-terminus of the peptide, such C-end Rule (CendR, pronounced "sender") peptides bind to neuropilin-1 and cause vascular leakage and tissue penetration. iRGD is a pan-tumor penetrating CendR peptide that can be used for tumor delivery of conjugated and combination delivery of various payloads (drugs or imaging agents, for example).^[5][6][7][8]

Awards and honors

• American Association for Cancer Research - G.H.A. Clowes Award
• Robert J. and Claire Pasarow Foundation Medical Research Award
• Jacobaeus International Prize
• Jubilee Award given by the British Biomedical Society
• Nobel Fellow at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm (1995)
• Thomson Reuters Citation Laureate
• Honorary Doctorate from the University of Lund
• Knight of the Order of the White Rose of Finland
• Japan Prize in Cell Biology (2005)

• Member of
  • U.S. National Academy of Sciences^[9]
  • Institute of Medicine
  • American Academy of Arts and Sciences
  • European Molecular Biology Organization

References

1. "Erkki Ruoslahti". Sanford Burnham Medical Research Institute. Retrieved 14 March 2013.
2. Ruoslahti, E.; Pierschbacher, M. (1987). "New perspectives in cell adhesion: RGD and integrins". Science 238 (4826): 491–497. doi:10.1126/science.2821619. PMID 2821619.
3. http://www.biochemsoctrans.org/bst/032/0397/bst0320397.htm
4. Teesalu, T.; Sugahara, K. N.; Kotamraju, V. R.; Ruoslahti, E. (2009). "C-end rule peptides mediate neuropilin-1-dependent cell, vascular, and tissue penetration". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 106 (38): 16157. doi:10.1073/pnas.0908201106.
5. Sugahara, K. N.; Teesalu, T.; Karmali, P. P.; Kotamraju, V. R.; Agemy, L.; Girard, O. M.; Hanahan, D.; Mattrey, R. F.; Ruoslahti, E. (2009). "Tissue-Penetrating Delivery of Compounds and Nanoparticles into Tumors". Cancer Cell 16 (6): 510–520. doi:10.1016/j.ccr.2009.10.013. PMC 2791543. PMID 19962669.
6. http://web.archive.org/web/20100507080918/http://www.sanfordburnham.org:80/default.asp?contentID=964. Archived from the original on May 7, 2010. Retrieved April 17, 2010. Missing or empty |title= (help)
7. Sugahara, K. N.; Teesalu, T.; Karmali, P. P.; Kotamraju, V. R.; Agemy, L.; Greenwald, D. R.; Ruoslahti, E. (2010). "Coadministration of a Tumor-Penetrating Peptide Enhances the Efficacy of Cancer Drugs". Science 328 (5981): 1031–1035. doi:10.1126/science.1183057. PMC 2881692. PMID 20378772.
8. Couzin-Frankel, Jennifer (8 April 2010). "New Peptide Helps Cancer Drugs Break Into Tumors". ScienceNOW. Retrieved 14 March 2013.
9. "Erkki Ruoslahti". United States National Academy of Sciences. Retrieved 14 March 2013.