Kit Lam, M.D., Ph.D.

Distinguished Professor, Biochemistry and Molecular at University of California Davis

Speaker

Dr. Kit S Lam is a physician-scientist and an expert in combinatorial chemistry, peptide chemistry, chemical biology, drug discovery and development, molecular imaging, nanotherapeutics, biomaterial and medical oncology. He obtained his B.A. in Microbiology in 1975 at the University of Texas at Austin, his Ph.D. in Oncology in 1980 from McArdle Laboratory for Cancer Research, University of Wisconsin, and his M.D. in 1984 from Stanford University School of Medicine. He is board certified in both Internal Medicine and Medical Oncology. Dr. Lam is recognized as one of the pioneers who started the field of synthetic combinatorial chemistry in the late 1980s and early 1990s. He conceived the one-bead one-compound (OBOC) concept and invented the OBOC combinatorial library methods that have been used by many investigators around the world for basic research, drug discovery and material discovery. More recently, the OBOC concept has been successfully applied by the molecular biologists for the generation of DNA barcodes for single cell genomic analysis. The OBOC combinatorial library method was first published in Nature in 1991. The article has since been cited over 2,500 times. In the last 15 years, Dr. Lam has expanded his research program into nanomedicine. He has developed several nanoplatforms for targeted drug delivery. Recently, he reported on the development of receptor-mediated transformable peptide nanoparticles for effective in vivo therapy of HER-2 positive tumors. Very recently, he reported a novel nano-immunoengager (NIE) platform that transforms into nanofibrils at the tumor sites, resulting in the conversion of an immunological “cold tumor” to “hot tumor”. Mice treated with NIE in conjunction with anti-PD-1 antibody not only were cured but were also found to be able to mount an immune memory effect against implantation of new tumors.