AFONIN LAB AT
UNC CHARLOTTE
EST. 2015
November 21, 2024
Congratulations to Ph.D. candidate Elizabeth Skelly, who was selected for the ACS Leadership Institute, Younger Leaders Track Award from the national Younger Chemists Committee! This award will fund a weekend trip to Houston for the ACS Leadership Institute, held annually at the start of the year.
November 5, 2024
Congratulations to Elizabeth and Mrs. Ghosh for being featured on Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools' social media! They hosted a hands-on workshop for 13 South Mecklenburg High students on the synthesis and application of AgNCs. Mrs. Ghosh attended the Summer Research Program for Teachers (SRET) in our lab, and she brought these techniques into the classroom, creating a fantastic learning experience for her students.
Click on the icons to check out the featured stories!
October 18, 2024
Congratulations to our very own Dr. Afonin for delivering two outstanding invited talks at the Nucleic Acids and Nanobiosystems in Cancer Theranostics Conference in São Paulo, Brazil!
In his first talk, Dr. Afonin captivated the audience with a presentation on the "Nanodesign of Nucleic Acid Nanoparticles for Biomedical Applications," where he introduced the lab's cutting-edge technologies. His second talk focused on "Autonomous Nucleic Acid Nanoparticles Engineered to Operate in Living Cells," further showcasing the lab's groundbreaking advancements. Both seminars were a tremendous success, drawing great interest from both senior researchers and students!
October 17, 2024
Congratulations to our Ph.D. student Laura Rebolledo for her excellent poster presentation on "Multifunctional RNA/DNA Nanoassemblies for Therapeutic Activation" at the Nucleic Acids and Nanobiosystems in Cancer Theranostics Conference in São Paulo, Brazil! Laura also led a dynamic 4-hour workshop for 9 Ph.D. students from around the world, offering an in-depth look at how our lab advances from design to delivery with innovative technologies.
This marked Laura's debut at an international conference, where she showcased her expertise with skill and enthusiasm.
Way to go, Laura!
September 2024
Congratulations to Ph.D. candidate Yasmine Radwan on securing a highly prestigious 3-month internship at Viiv Healthcare, a proud subsidiary of GSK! Your hard work and dedication have truly paid off.
Amazing achievement, Yasmine!
September 5, 2024
Congratulations to our ACS SEED '24 Summer Student, Sharlyn Garcia, for showcasing her research at the ACS Local Section September meeting! Thank you to her mentor, Laura Rebolledo, for her guidance and support throughout the summer.
Fantastic work this summer Sharlyn!
August 19 to 23, 2024
Ph.D. Candidate Yasmine Radwan participated in specialized training with our industry partner, MIMETAS. During her time there, she utilized their organ-on-a-chip technology to evaluate the performance of our nucleic acid nanoparticles (NANPs) in mimicking complex biological systems.
Way to go Yasmine!
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August 2, 2024
A special thank you to Ph.D. Candidate Elizabeth Skelly, who trained and co-mentored our amazing students Simone, Gabriela,
Mrs. Ghosh, and Mrs. Dula during their Summer research experiences. Way to go team!
August 2, 2024
Congratulations to the Charlotte Institute Teachers (CTI), Mrs. Sarmistha Ghosh and Mrs. Regina Dula, for completing the Summer Research Experience for Teachers (SRET) program with the Afonin Lab and presenting their work at the Office of Undergraduate Research Summer '24 Symposium!
August 2, 2024
Congratulations to our REU undergraduate student, Gabriela Chamorro, and OUR undergraduate student, Simone Walkowe, for presenting their posters at the Office of Undergraduate Research Summer '24 Symposium!
April 15, 2024
Congratulations to Dr. Avila for successfully defending her thesis!!!
March 22, 2024
Congratulations to Elizabeth!
She was awarded Second place
for her oral presentation in the category of
Interdisciplinary at the Graduate Research Symposium
at UNC Charlotte!
2021
March 13, 2024
Our research was highlighted by Science Featured
"Breaking barriers in gene therapy with innovative nano carriers"
March 06, 2024
Congratulations to Yelixza for being selected as an iCURE scholar at the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, MD!
The prestigious iCURE fellowship will provide her with full support for three years at NCI!
February 12, 2024
Congratulations to the Laura, Dr. Ke, Dr. Afonin and our collaborators for putting out an insightful research article!
"Immunostimulation of Fibrous Nucleic Acid Nanoparticles Can be Modulated through Aptamer-Based Functional Moieties: Unveiling the Structure–Activity Relationship and Mechanistic Insights" was published in the journal ACS Applied Interfaces and Materials.
December 13, 2023
Our research was highlighted on the Biomedical Beat Blog - National Institute of General Medical Sciences!
Science Snippet: Zooming In on Nanoparticles
August 16, 2023
Congratulations to the team and our collaborators for our most recent publication "Demonstrating the Synthesis and Antibacterial Properties of Nanostructured Silver"
July 2, 2023
Congratulations to Dr. Afonin, the team, and all of our collaborators for publishing our methods book titled
RNA Nanostructures: Design, Characterization, and Applications
July 28, 2023
Congratulations to Dr. Afonin for publishing his second book of the year! The book is a Special Issue Reprint entitled "Nanotechnology to Overcome World's Most Critical Health: Liposomes and Beyond—a Themed Issue Dedicated to Professor Yechezkel Barenholz" and focuses on nanotechnology platforms, including liposomes, which are used for the delivery of therapeutics and vaccines in order to solve the world’s most critical health issues and to support environmental sustainability.
June 22, 2023
Nanomedicine just published one of our articles! "Optical, structural and antibacterial properties of silver nanoparticles and DNA-templated silver nanoclusters", congratulations to Leyla, Alex, Elizabeth, and Dr. Afonin!
June 23, 2023
Congratulations to Leyla, Dr. Rolband, Elizabeth, and Dr. Afonin for their most recently published mini-review in Nanomedicine!
The review is titled "Optical, structural and antibacterial properties of silver nanoparticles and DNA-templated silver nanoclusters"
June 9, 2023
Congratulations to Damian, Anh, Dr. Halman, Dr. P, and Dr. Afonin for their most recent publication in Bioconjugate Chemistry! The manuscript is titled "Break to Build: isothermal assembly of nucleic acid nanoparticles (NANPs) via enzymatic degradation"
May 30, 2023
Congratulations to Yasmine, Dr. Afonin, and our collaborators for their most recently published manuscript to Molecules!
The paper is titled "Change in lipofectamine carrier as a tool to fine-tune immunostimulation of nucleic acid nanoparticles"
May 30, 2023
Congratulations to Dr. Afonin! He was recently selected as a National Characterization Lab (NCL) collaborator to investigate a new anticoagulant platform to address some of the main complications associated with traditional anticoagulants. The new platform is based on immunoquiescent nucleic acid nanoparticles, which have recently been shown to exhibit efficient and fully reversible anticoagulant function while having regulated biodistribution and retention.
May 20, 2023
Congratulations to Dr. Afonin and our collaborators for their most recent publication in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces titled "Toehold-Mediated Shape Transition of Nucleic Acid Nanoparticles"
April 28, 2023
Congratulations to the team - Ally, Damian, Dr. Chandler and Dr. Afonin for having their manuscript "The Application of Light-Assisted Drying to the Thermal Stabilization of Nucleic Acid Nanoparticles" be selected as the best paper award in Biopreservation and Biobanking. The Best Paper Award recognizes a most impactful paper published in Biopreservation and Biobanking (BIO) the previous year.
April 2023
Seraphim Kozlov, who was a summer scholar in our lab and co-authored a couple of papers with us, joined Honors Carolina at
UNC Chapel Hill in the fall, he was also selected for the Carolina Scholars program!
April 25, 2023
Congratulations to Laura Rebelledo for being awarded the Science Technology and Engineering oral award at the UNC Charlotte Undergraduate Research Conference (URC) for her presentation titled
"The delivery of nucleic acid nanoparticles using PAMAM dendrimers"!
March 07, 2023
Congratulations to Dr. Afonin for being awarded the prestigious award, First Citizens Bank Scholars Medal at the Spring faculty awards ceremony!
This medal and award recognize Dr. Afonin's commitment to research excellence which is evident by his commitment to UNC Charlotte and his team!
January 30, 2023
Congratulations to Dr. Chandler, Yelixza, Sandra, and Dr. Afonin! Their most recent collaborative manuscript was published in the International Journal of Pharmaceutics: X.
January 24, 2023
Congratulations to Dr. P, Elizabeth, Damian, and Dr. Afonin for having their review on
Therapeutic immunomodulation by rationally designed nucleic acids and nucleic acid nanoparticles (NANPs) in Frontiers!
January 2023
The lab traveled to Ventura, CA, to attend and present their research at the Gordon Research Conference on RNA Nanotechnology!
Congrats to everyone! They all did a great job presenting their work and representing the lab.
We are looking forward to all of our future collaborations and staying in contact with all of our new connections.
November 11, 2022
Congratulations to Alex, Damian, and Dr. Afonin for their most recent publication in the Computational and Structural Biotechnology Journal!
November 05, 2022
Our chapter in the Handbook of Chemical Biology of Nucleic Acids was just published! Great work to Leyla, Dr. Chandler, and Dr. Afonin!
October 09, 2022
A big congratulations to Dr. Chandler, Dr. Halman, Dr. Afonin, and our collaborators! Our article was published in Small, detailing the production of a new useful tool - AI Cell.
"Artificial Immune Cell, AI-cell, a New Tool to Predict Interferon Production by Peripheral Blood Monocytes in Response to Nucleic Acid Nanoparticles (NANPs)"
October 03, 2022
Congratulations to Dr. Chandler and Dr. Afonin for their recent publication with their collaborative effort that was published in Advanced Functional Materials, "Adaptation-Proof SARS-CoV-2 Vaccine Design"
Update: Our work was highlighted on medicalxpress.com!
September 06, 2022
Congratulations to Allison, Damian, Dr. Chandler and Dr. Afonin! Our collaborative work has been published in Biopreservation and Biobanking!
"The Application of Light-Assisted Drying to the Thermal Stabilization of Nucleic Acid Nanoparticles"
August 12, 2022
Congratulations to Dr. Chandler, Alex, Yelixza, Damian, Leyla, Lizzie, and Dr. Afonin! Our big collaborative project has been published in Advanced Functional Materials!
"Expanding Structural Space for Immunomodulatory Nucleic Acid Nanoparticles (NANPs) via Spatial Arrangement of Their Therapeutic Moieties"
July 05, 2022
Congratulations to Dr. Ke, Dr. Chandler, Alex, Rosalie, and Melina! Our big story is finally out and published in Nano Letters!
"Locking and Unlocking Thrombin Function Using Immunoquiescent Nucleic Acid Nanoparticles with Regulated Retention In Vivo"
June 2022
Our book on RNA Nanotechnology and Therapeutics is finally out! Thank you and congratulations to all the contributors from our lab:
Alex, Damian, Oleg, Dr. Striplin, Dr. Halman, Dr. Chandler, Dr. Ke, Dr. Panigaj
(Click here to find it on Amazon!)
June 22, 2022
Congratulations to Dr. Afonin and our collaborator, Dr. Vivero-Escoto (UNCC), for their most recently funded NIH grant!
"Multimodal hybrid nanoparticles for the treatment of triple-negative breast cancer"
June 22, 2022
Congratulations to Dr. Afonin and our collaborator, Dr. Vivero-Escoto (UNCC) for their most recently funded NIH grant!
"Multimodal hybrid nanoparticles for the treatment of triple-negative breast cancer"
June 14, 2022
Congratulations to Dr. Afonin and our collaborators, Drs. Krasnoslobotsev (UNO) and Yingling (NCSU) for their most recently funded grant from the National Science Foundation!
"Collaborative Research: Exploring self-organization of functional nucleic acid
supramolecular assemblies with stimuli-responsive properties"
April 19, 2022
Congratulations to Dr. Afonin and our collaborators, Drs. Wanunu and Aksimentiev for their most recently funded NIH grant, the R21!
"Multiplexed electronic counting of scarce protein targets using nucleic acid nanoparticles"
We are very excited about this work and the applications that can stem from it!
April 2022
Excited and honored to share that the NCI chose, for its FY23 congressional justification report, an image of our NANPs (in green) that were developed and produced by our lab and visualized at the NCL.
Read about it here on the Charlotte Exchange as a feature
or
Read about it here on the Inside UNC Charlotte Website
February 10, 2022
Our paper in Small entitled, "Anhydrous Nucleic Acid Nanoparticles for Storage and Handling at Broad Range of Temperatures," has been featured as a spotlight by Nanowerk!
(Click here to read it!)
February 07, 2022
Congratulations to the team, Ally, Dr. Chandler, Dr. Halman, Damian, and Dr. Afonin for their recent publication in Small, "Anhydrous Nucleic Acid Nanoparticles for Storage and Handling at Broad Range of Temperatures"
December 23, 2021
Dr. Afonin's Editorial to "Journey into the immunological properties of engineered nanomaterials: There and back again" was just published in Advanced Drug Delivery Reviews! Congratulations Dr. Afonin!
December 14, 2021
Our review "Critical review of nucleic acid nanotechnology to identify gaps and inform a strategy for accelerated clinical translation" has been published in Advanced Drug Delivery Reviews! Congratulations to Dr. Ke and Dr. Afonin!
December 13, 2021
Congratulations to Damian and Dr. Afonin! Their review "To PEGylate or not to PEGylate: immunological properties of nanomedicines's most popular component, poly(ethylene) glycol and its alternatives" was just published in Advanced Drug Delivery Reviews
November 2021
Congratulations to Dr. Chandler, Dr. Johnson, and Dr. Afonin's article being highlighted on the ACS Nano cover!
October 22, 2021
Great work Dr. Chandler, Dr. Johnson, and Dr. Afonin for publishing their most recent work "The International Society of RNA Nanotechnology and Nanomedicine (ISRNN): The Present and Future of the Burgeoning Field" in ACS Nano!!
September 3, 2021
Nanomedicine: NBM has selected our paper "Programmable DNA-Augmented Hydrogels for Controlled Activation of Human Lymphocytes" as the cover for volume 37, 2021! (Click here to see it!)
August 17, 2021
Our collaborative paper was just published! Congratulations to Morgan, Kyle, Dr. Johnson, Sema, Dr. Panigaj, and Dr. Afonin for their paper "Controlled Organization of Inorganic Materials Using Biological Molecules for Activating Therapeutic Functionalities" which was published in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces!
August 2021
Congratulations to Dr. Morgan Chandler for successfully defending her doctoral dissertation "Dynamic and Conditionally Activated Nucleic Acid Nanoparticles"!!
July 20, 2021
Our collaborative paper was just published! Congratulations to Morgan and Dr. Afonin for their paper "Programmable DNA-Augmented Hydrogels for Controlled Activation of Human Lymphocytes" which was published in Nanomedicine: Nanotechnology, Biology and Medicine!
July 12, 2021
Our review "The Recognition of and Reactions to Nucleic Acid Nanoparticles by Human Immune Cells" has been published in Molecules! Congratulations to Yasmine, Dr. Panigaj, and Dr. Afonin!
July 1, 2021
Congratulations to Alex, Morgan, Damian, Leyla, Seraphim, Oleg, and Dr. Afonin on their article "DNA-Templated Fluorescent Silver Nanoclusters Inhibit Bacterial Growth While Being Non-Toxic to Mannamlian Cells" which was published in Molecules!
June 26, 2021
Our Paper "Simultaneous silencing of Lysophosphatidylcholine Acyltransferases 1–4 by nucleic acid nanoparticles (NANPs) improves radiation response of melanoma cells" has been published in Nanomedicine: Nanotechnology, Biology and Medicine! Congratulations to Dr. Halman, Morgan, and Dr. Afonin!
June 25, 2021
Congratulations to Dr. Panigaj, Dr. Dobrovolskaia, and Dr. Afonin! Their commentary was just published in Nanomedicine.
June 24, 2021
Our lab was recently featured in the UNC Charlotte Magazine!
June 16, 2021
Our paper "Exosomes as Natural Delivery Carriers for Programmable Therapeutic Nucleic Acid Nanoparticles (NANPs)" has recently been published in Advanced Drug Delivery Reviews! Congratulations to Dr. Ke and Dr. Afonin!
May 14, 2021
Congratulations to Alex and his research proposal for winning the Mining For Gold competition at UNC Charlotte. As part of the award, he will receive $1,000 for his research project.
May 11, 2021
Our book "Therapeutic RNA Nanotechnology: Immunomodulation and Dynamicity 1st Edition" is now available!
April 21, 2021
Congratulations to Doaha for winning the Science, Technology, and Engineering - Oral Award at the 2021 Undergraduate Research Conference at UNC Charlotte!!
April 16, 2021
Our paper "Nucleic Acid Nanoparticles (NANPs) as Molecular Tools to Direct Desirable and Avoid Undesirable Immunological Effects" has been published in Advanced Drug Delivery Reviews! Congratulations to Dr. Johnson, Morgan Chandler, and Dr. Afonin!
April 14, 2021
Congratulations to Morgan for being awarded the 2021 Graduate School Summer Fellowship Program (GSSF) from UNC Charlotte!
February 20, 2021
Congratulations to Seraphim S. Kozlov for being awarded 2nd place for his poster "DNA Silver NanoClusters with Antibacterial Properties for Medical Devices" at the International Biotech Symposium 2021!
Seraphim was also awarded with the following accolades at the Frederick County Science and Engineering Fair:
-
US Public Health Service Meritorious Award
-
US Air Force Award
-
Us Agency for International Development Award
January 21, 2021
Our latest manuscript "Induction of cytokines by Nucleic Acid Nanoparticles (NANPs) depends on the type of delivery carrier" has been published in Molecules! Congratulations to Yelixza, Melina, Morgan, and Dr. Afonin. (Click here to read it!)