Research Spotlight
Dr. John F. Engelhardt research focuses on the molecular basis of CF and the development of gene therapies for the disease. Notably, Dr. Engelhardt's laboratory was the first to clone ferrets, creating new animal models that have enhanced the study of CF pathologies and potential treatments.
Research Papers
Durable transgene expression and efficient re-administration after rAAV2.5T-mediated fCFTRDR gene delivery to adult ferret lungs by Yinghua Tang - Anatomy and Cell Biolgy
Pilot Programs
Pilot programs provides seed money for research that has not yet reached the stage of maturity necessary for funding by traditional NIH mechanisms such as RO1s and PO1s. Such research ideas should be considered innovative and may potentially be high risk.
Latest Publications
Artificial intelligence-guided design of lipid nanoparticles for pulmonary gene therapy
Tuesday, December 10, 2024
Ionizable lipids are a key component of lipid nanoparticles, the leading nonviral messenger RNA delivery technology. Here, to advance the identification of ionizable lipids beyond current methods, which rely on experimental screening and/or rational design, we introduce lipid optimization using neural networks, a deep-learning strategy for ionizable lipid design. We created a dataset of >9,000 lipid nanoparticle activity measurements and used it to train a directed message-passing neural network...
News
University of Iowa physician–scientist receives prestigious Lasker Award
Thursday, September 11, 2025
