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When renowned biomedical researcher Evan Scott uses the term “life-changing” to describe his move to Charlottesville as well as the collaborative discoveries fostered by nanoSTAR, the UVA nanotechnology institute he leads, he isn’t exaggerating. Both have been transformative.
Scott joined the University’s faculty in 2024 after a decade at Northwestern University. As the David Goodman Family Bicentennial Professor in Nanomedicine and Thomas A. Saunders III Family Jefferson Scholars Foundation Distinguished University Professor, he holds joint appointments with the School of Medicine and School of Engineering and Applied Science as a professor of biomedical engineering.
Microscopic Particles, Enormous Potential
Scott uses nanotechnology—designing and manufacturing minute devices and structures—to fight disease from a biomedical engineering perspective. “At the core, I’m an engineer, so that’s my home base,” he said. As head of the Institute for Nanoscale Scientific and Technological Advanced Research, Scott is continuing and expanding work begun by the center’s previous director, the late Mark Kester.
“Our goal is to serve as a go-to resource at UVA for using nanotechnology in the biomedical space,” Scott said. NanoSTAR will eventually move to the soon-to-be-completed Paul and Diane Manning Institute of Biotechnology, the newest UVA biomedical research, development, and manufacturing facility.
Scott groups nanoSTAR’s efforts into three categories. Its team of researchers employs a library of nanoparticles—drug delivery vehicles smaller than microscopic—that other UVA researchers can use in developing personalized drug formulations. Scott says the second critical aspect of the lab is education, providing opportunities for students to learn about and receive training in the use of nanoparticles. Finally, he intends to extend the translational aspect of nanoSTAR, helping researchers assess the usefulness and commercial feasibility of their nanotechnology-based discoveries.
Scott and his team are developing new nanomaterials and drug delivery methods with a focus on directing nanoparticles to specific parts of the body and controlling their interactions with the immune system. “We learned from nature that viruses are very good at infecting certain types of cells,” Scott said. “So nanoparticles can be considered artificial viruses that deliver drugs to the right location, the right cell type, the right tissue type, similar to viruses, but more efficient and safe.”
Promising Prognoses
The resulting treatments for cancer and other diseases could literally be life-changing. “We have a very close affiliation with the UVA Cancer Center,” he said, “so cancer therapeutics is a key focus for us. How do you avoid toxicity? How do you target therapeutics to solid tumors and increase their efficacy?”
This work intersects with Scott’s immunotherapy focus. “We aim to develop nanoparticle formulations that modulate the immune system to enhance immunotherapy, a rapidly advancing cancer treatment strategy,” he said. Another objective of his team is to develop cancer gene therapies that can target specific cells within tumors, forcing them to produce and locally release tumor-fighting molecules. His early-stage startup company, SNC Therapeutics Inc., is focused on the clinical translation of these gene delivery systems, which has received initial funding from the large pharmaceutical company AbbVie Inc.
Scott also investigates the treatment of infectious diseases. One that has typically been under the radar is Chagas disease, caused by an infectious parasite that is rapidly making its way from South America through the United States via its main insect host, the triatomine or “kissing” bug. Exposure to the insect and the parasite it carries can over a period of years cause inflammation that leads to heart failure.
Treating Chagas disease requires walking a medical tightrope. “We’re targeting the infected cells while, at the same time, treating the heart inflammation, or myocarditis,” he said. “That’s hard to do because treating inflammation typically requires suppressing the immune system, which may allow the parasite to resurface and spread throughout the body. The challenge is to address the myocarditis without reactivating latent parasite reservoirs where the parasite hides, mainly in body fat. So we’re using nanotechnology to strategically target the latent parasite and the heart inflammation at the same time.”
Left to right: Evan Scott observes as postdoctoral scholar Gan Lin operates an automated multi-inlet-vortex mixer, a specialized machine which mixes water-soluble and organic solutions very quickly to create uniform, drug-loaded nanostructures.
A cancer immunotherapy drug is mixed into an organic solvent to increase its effectiveness and minimize damage to healthy tissue.
Kissing bugs carry the parasite that causes Chagas disease. Scott and his team are using nanotechnology to target both the parasite carried by the insect and the heart inflammation it can cause.
Syringes are loaded into the MIVM, where their contents will be combined at high speeds to package cancer immunotherapies in polymer, forming nanoparticles.
An Easy Sell
An award-winning researcher and prolific academic author such as Scott would be prized by any top-level research institution. So what brought him to UVA?
Philanthropy is one reason. The Morris & Rosalind Goodman Family Foundation funds one of his professorships, and the Saunders family funds his University Professorship. The Cancer Center provides support as well. “When we apply for a grant to the National Institutes of Health, for example, it can take up to a year to receive the funding and start working on the project, so having discretionary funding was important,” Scott said. “When I or someone in my lab has an idea, we can start testing it and gathering preliminary data immediately. As a scientist, I couldn’t turn down this rare opportunity.”
He also likes the proximity of—and collaboration between—the Schools of Engineering and Medicine. “To be at a place where the biomedical engineering department is embedded within both the medical school and the engineering school, that was fantastic. Unique, actually,” he said.
Another draw was the opportunity to once again work with the deans of the two schools. “Jennifer West [Engineering School dean] is fantastic,” Scott said. “She’s a biomaterials scientist, which is my primary field of research. I’ve been studying her work and meeting her at conferences since I was a grad student. And I know Melina Kibbe [School of Medicine dean] from her time at Northwestern. We were both in the Simpson Querrey Institute for BioNanotechnology, and I was extremely impressed by her work there. They’re both really great people who are extremely reliable.”
Other important people in his life also influenced Scott’s move to Charlottesville. “I’m originally from Baltimore, so I have a lot of family there and my wife grew up in Virginia,” he said. “My two daughters have never seen their cousins, or even their great-grandmother, so it was really enticing to come back to this area. It’s just a great place to live and raise a family.”
Life-changing, indeed.
