Dr. K.C Mei

Dr. Kuo-Ching (KC) Mei, PhD, BS Pharmacy

Academic Information

Departments Assistant Professor - Molecular Pharmaceutics , Assistant Professor - College of Pharmacy

Academic Office Information

kc.mei@pharm.utah.edu

801-581-7271

Lab

Research Interests

  • Immunogenic mRNA-LNP platform for cancer immunotherapy using syngeneic tumor models.
  • Tolerogenic mRNA-LNP platform to overcome pre-existing and treatment-emergent anti-AAV/transgene immunity.
  • Investigating the IFN-γ–IDO1–tryptophan axis in RNA-based immunotherapy.
  • Programmable lipid platform design via chemical synthesis for RNA and drug delivery.

Research Interests

Dr. Mei’s laboratory focuses on the development of lipid nanoparticle (LNP)-based gene delivery systems for RNA therapeutics, with applications in both immunostimulation (e.g., cancer preventive and therapeutic vaccines) and immunomodulation (e.g., inducing immune tolerance to therapeutic viral vectors, autoantigens, allergens, therapeutic transgenes, and proteins). His research integrates molecular pharmaceutics, immunoengineering, and translational pharmaceutical sciences to enable novel chemoimmunotherapy, gene therapy, and cell therapy approaches.

Additionally, his lab investigates how immunometabolic cues, such as IFN-γ and amino acid deprivation, influence mRNA delivery and translation, and the downstream impact on innate and adaptive immunity. A combination of chemical synthesis, formulation development, high-throughput screening, and in vitro-in vivo disease modeling is used to advance next-generation precision immunotherapies. Current projects include:

  1. Immunogenic mRNA-LNP platform for cancer immunotherapy using syngeneic tumor models.
  2. Tolerogenic mRNA-LNP platform to overcome pre-existing and treatment-emergent anti-AAV/transgene immunity.
  3. Investigating the IFN-γ–IDO1–tryptophan axis in RNA-based immunotherapy.
  4. Programmable lipid platform design via chemical synthesis for RNA and drug delivery.

RELATED LINKS

U of U Faculty Profile

The Mei Lab

College of Pharmacy

Education History

Postdoctoral Training UNC-Chapel Hill Eshelman School of Pharmacy
 Postdoctoral Training 2
Postdoctoral Training UCLA Medical School & California NanoSystems Institute
 Postdoctoral Training 1
Doctoral Training King’s College London Institute of Pharmaceutical Science (University of London)
 PhD Pharmaceutical Science
Post Graduate Training University College London School of Pharmacy (University of London)
 Postgraduate
Undergraduate Taipei Medical University College of Pharmacy
 BS Pharmacy Licensed Pharmacist

Selected Publications

Journal Article

  1. Wei, P.-S.; Thota, N.; John, G.; Chang, E.; Lee, S.; Wang, Y.; Ma, Z.; Tsai, Y.-H.; Mei, K.-C. Enhancing RNA-lipid nanoparticle delivery: organ- and cell-specificity and barcoding strategies, Journal of Controlled Release, 2024, 375, 366-388, doi: 10.1016/j.jconrel.2024.08.030 

  2.  Mei, K.-C.; Thota, N.; Wei, P.-S.; Yi, B.; Bonacquisti, E.; Nguyen, J. Calreticulin P-domain-derived “eat-me” peptides for enhancing liposomal uptake in dendritic cells. International Journal of Pharmaceutics, 2024, doi: 10.1016/j.ijpharm.2024.123844

  3. Mei, K.-C.; Stiepel R. T.; Bonacquisti, E. E.; Jasiewicz, N. E.; Chaudhari, A. P.; Tiwade, P. B.;  Bachelder, E. M.; Ainslie, K. M.; Fenton, O. S.; Nguyen J.  Single-tailed heterocyclic carboxamide lipids for macrophage immune-modulation. Biomaterials Science (RSC), 2023, 11(8), 2693-2698, doi: 10.1039/D2BM01804G

  4. Nel, A. E.; Mei, K.-C.; Liao, Y.-P.; Liu, X.  Multi-functional lipid bilayer nanocarriers for cancer immunotherapy in heterogeneous tumor microenvironment, combining immunogenic cell death stimuli with immune modulatory drugs. ACS Nano, 2022, 16 (4), 5184–5232, doi: 10.1021/acsnano.2c01252

  5. Mei, K.-C.; Liao, Y.-P.; Jiang, J.; Chiang, M.; Khazaieli, M.; Liu, X.; Wang, X.; Liu, Q.; Chang, C. H.; Zhang, X.; Li, J.; Ji, Y.; Melano, B.; Telesca, D.; Xia, T.; Meng, H.; Nel, A. E. Liposomal delivery of mitoxantrone and a cholesteryl indoximod prodrug provides effective chemo-immunotherapy in multiple solid tumors. ACS Nano, 2020, 14(10), 13343-13366, doi: 10.1021/acsnano.0c05194