Hi Reddit, I'm Warren Chan of the University of Toronto. Ask me anything
about applying nanotechnology to treating cancer and infectious
diseases. AMA!
Abstract
ACS AMA Hello Reddit! My name is Warren Chan, and I am currently
Distinguished Professor of Biomedical Engineering at The University of
Toronto. I also serve as Associate Editor of ACS Nano. I am very much
looking forward to my first time participating in Reddit. I obtained my
B.S. from University of Illinois in 1996 and a PhD from Indiana
University in 2001, both in Chemistry. Then I did my post-doctoral work
at the University of California-San Diego in Biomedical Engineering and
I joined the faculty at the University of Toronto in 2002 at the
Institute of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering. I am interested in
developing nanotechnology for diagnosing and treating cancer and
infectious diseases. As a chemist, I learned how to make and design
nanomaterials and as I started my independent career, I wanted to focus
on applying these materials to the medical field. My interest can span
two domains: (a) outside of the body, I am interested in developing
handheld nanotechnology devices that can identify biomarkers and link
them to diseases. These devices can also measure these biomarkers with a
single drop of blood. (b) inside the body, I am interested in figuring
out how to deliver nanoparticles to the diseased site. I think the
biggest challenge of using nanotechnology is to be able to deliver
enough of the medical agent to the site of action. I work with
engineers, chemists, biologists, and clinicians to solve these problems.
I would like forward to our discussion. Ask me anything about
bionanotechnology! I’ll be back at 11am EDT (8am PDT, 3pm UTC) to start
answering your questions. It has been awesome chatting with everybody on
nanotechnology! I am signing off! Have an awesome day!