Associated Lab Members
During her academic education, Dr Bellat studied Physics and Chemistry, and was trained as a nanotechnology scientist. After receiving her PhD degree from the University of Burgundy (France) in 2012, she served as a research engineer and oversaw the development of a technological platform devoted to the toxicological analysis of different kind of nanoparticles used in industry. In 2014, she moved to New York and became a postdoctoral fellow in the Molecular Imaging Innovations Institute at Weill Cornell Medicine, under Dr. Benedict Law’s mentorship. Her work mainly focused on designing new drug carriers, such as nanomaterials and peptide-conjugates, to promote chemotherapeutic targeted delivery, tissue penetration, and tumoral uptake and retention, for cancer treatments. In 2020, she transitioned to the instructor position, and she now pursue her academic career as an assistant professor. Her research is centered on the engineering of precision drug delivery nanoplatforms with controlled in vivo distribution, preferential organ uptake, and limited off-target accumulation to achieve more effective and safer chemotherapeutic treatments. Her research is supported by the National Cancer Institute (R37 MERIT grant).
Areas of Specialization: Nanomedicines, peptide-based nanomaterials, targeted drug delivery, anticancer agents, combinatorial treatments.
Applications: Cancer imaging and therapy (pulmonary, breast, brain, and bladder)
Dr. Lee pursued his education at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, earning both a bachelor’s degree and a PhD. Throughout his doctoral studies, he explored Quantitative Phase Imaging (QPI) and merged it with artificial intelligence (AI) methodologies. This integration facilitated the measurement of intrinsic cellular information, cellular dynamics, growth patterns, and intracellular transport. In 2023, he joined the Bellat Lab at Weill Cornell Medicine as a Postdoctoral Research Associate. In his current role, he is focusing on developing innovative smart nanomedicine (e.g., nanofiber) with specialized lung-targeting properties that will serves as a drug delivery platform intended to enhance the specificity and effectiveness of cancer treatment, particularly in addressing triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) lung metastases.
Henry got his MS degree in Biomolecular Engineering from the University of California, Santa Cruz. There, along with other research at Washington University, University of California, San Francisco, and the National Human Genome Research Institute (NIH), he studied the genomics of various systems and diseases including congenital heart and brain defects, leukemia, brain cancers, and cardiac/metabolic diseases using analyses of whole exome sequencing, microarrays, bulk RNA sequencing, gene fusions, metabolomics, proteomics, and single cell RNA sequencing. Henry’s current research interests are image analysis for cancer biology and treatment, heart and brain biology, and the genomics of the above.
Our research work focuses on developing precision nanomedicines, with the long-term goals of achieving a more specific and effective drug delivery for the treatment of different type of cancers. In my lab, we design on-demand nanocarriers displaying organ-specific targeting and/or retention properties to improve the safety and efficacy of chemotherapeutic treatments. Our peptide-based delivery systems promote drug targeted delivery, tissue penetration, and tumoral uptake and retention, for cancer imaging and therapy.
Currently, most nanotechnology cancer therapies focus on the treatment of primary tumors, but it is important to leverage the potential of nanomedicine to combat cancer spread at each stage of the metastatic process. With a keen intertest in developing innovative therapeutic approaches for treating pulmonary metastases, we have notably designed a new generation of nanofibers (pNFP) displaying preferential lung-targeting and -retention properties. The nanofibers display a unique 2D single layer structure with a very high aspect ratio (5 nm in width and 10 μm in length) and carries multiple positive charges that promote lung affinity and uptake with a limited off-target accumulation in other organs. Multiple pNFP can also rearrange into a large interfibril network which favors the local retention in the lung tissue via mechanical trapping in the deep alveolar areas. When used as delivery platform, the nanofibers will serve as a drug depot that supplies a continuous drug flow for a more effective long-term treatment. The combination of organ-targeting and -retention properties will allow a reduction in the applied drug dosages to reach a better therapeutic effect and minimize the chemotherapy-associated morbidity and mortality. With additional advancements, the nanofiber technology could be further transposable to locally deliver and release various drug molecules for treating other lung malignancies, including cystic fibrosis, pleural effusion, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
US patent: Law B, Bellat V, Choi B, Peptide-linked drug delivery system, Patent disclosed to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, application number US17/556,714.
US patent: Law B, Tung CH, Bellat V, Enzyme-responsive peptide nanofiber compositions and uses thereof. US20180296697A1 and WO2017059338A1.
FR patent: Vandroux D, Millot N, Bellat V, Titanate-based nanostructures for regenerative medicine and tissue engineering. WO 2014/079890A4.
Both chemotherapy and radiation therapy (RT) are frequently used in the curative-intent, adjuvant therapy, and palliative treatment of lung metastases. However, these approaches suffer from lack of specificity and high toxicity leading to treatment failure and/or resistance, disease relapse, and adverse effects. For...
The main limitations of the use of nanoparticles as drug delivery platform for cancer treatment are the inconsistent deep-tissue targeting resulting in a lack of tumor penetration, and the incomplete drug release on tumor site leading to a depreciation of safety and therapeutic efficacy. The nanofiber technology allows to carry more drugs...
