Discovery and Basic Research
Zongmin Zhao, PhD
Assistant Professor
University of Illinois Chicago
Chicago, Illinois
Cells are emerging as a promising class of drug delivery carriers. Current efforts in the field have demonstrated that cells as living carries have the unique capability to navigate different biological barriers leading to improved on-target therapeutic delivery. Over the past two decade, innovations in the field have led to numerous novel materials- and biologically-based strategies to engineer cell-based drug delivery systems, which eventually catalyzed the exploration of diverse cell types for targeting different pathologies. In this Prologue, I will overview the history, basic principles, new advances, and future perspectives in the field of cell-inspired drug delivery technologies.