Mr. Hassan Fakih

Department of Chemistry, McGill University

Biography:

Hassan obtained his bachelor’s degree in chemistry from the American University of Beirut in 2016. Then, he Joined the Sleiman Lab at the Chemistry department of McGill University to pursue his doctorate degree. His work is focused on the biomedical applications DNA nanocarriers, specifically on designing and testing DNA-based nanocarriers for the delivery of nucleic acid therapeutics with characteristics that enable them to move faster into clinical trials (cost effective, biocompatible, specificity, stability etc.). His work resulted in producing simple yet effective sequence-controlled nucleic acid-polymer conjugates that assemble into spherical nucleic acids (SNAs) with stimuli responsive activation, as well as FANA modified-SNAs that show promising results of efficacy without any transfection agents. He also is working on developing and studying conjugates that control the protein corona that forms arounds therapeutics in vivo and impact their pharmacokinetics/dynamics. Outside of research, Hassan is very interested in scientific communication and bridging science with policy and management.