Biografía

Dr. Alexis’ Ph.D. thesis focused on drug release and degradation mechanisms of biodegradable drug eluting stents. As a postdoctoral fellow at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in the laboratory of Dr Omid Farokhzad and Research Affiliate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology from 2006 to 2009 in the laboratory of Prof. Robert Langer, he developed multiple polymeric nanoparticle technologies including targeted nanoparticles for cancer therapy, oral drug delivery, and vaccines. He has published 90 manuscripts, patents, reviews, and book chapters. Among these publications, his review published in Molecular Pharmaceutics has been cited more than 2000 times and his research has been highlighted as cover art and frontispiece. He holds 16 intellectual properties, including 9 licensed to industry. He was listed in Nature Biotechnology as Top Translational Junior Faculty in 2013. He has graduated five Ph.D. students and mentored more than 150 undergraduate students. He is the Chief Scientific Officer at GearJump Technologies LLC since 2017, where he offers guidance to develop advanced environmental distribution systems for agro-industrial applications. In October 2018, he founded BiodiverSource, a company in Ecuador dedicated to biomaterials of biodiversity environments with unique properties, including cellulose, for research laboratories, institutions and industries. His research has been funded as principal investigator and co-principal investigator to more than $3.5 million. He has participated in 18 funded research projects with a duration of at least 12 months each. He joined Yachay Tech in 2017 and he is currently Full Professor.

Research interests

• Natural biomaterials
• Antimicrobial biomaterials
• Bioremediation
• Natural immunostimulants for aquacuture
• Biomaterials for agro-industry
• Nanomaterials

Teaching

• Biomaterials
• Polymer Processing
• Drug Delivery Technologies

Selected Publications

1. Guerra, Fernanda. D.; Whitehead, Daniel. C.; Alexis, Frank; “Gaseous Capture using Amine-functionalized Cellulose”, ChemsitrySelect, 3 (20), 5495-5501, (2018).
2. Guerra, Fernanda. D.; Campbell, McKenzie L.; Whitehead, Daniel. C.; Alexis, Frank, “Tunable Properties of Functional Nanoparticles for Efficient Capture of VOCs”, ChemsitrySelect, 2 (31), 9889-9894 (2017).
3. Casco, M., Martin, J., Zhang, G., Alexis, F. “Singapore Study Abroad Program: Cross-Cultural and Global Interdependency Development in STEM Undergraduate Students”, Education, 137 (3), 249-256 (2017)
4. Pridgen EM, Alexis F, Farokhzad OC. “Polymeric Nanoparticle Drug Delivery Technologies for Oral Delivery Applications.” Expert Opinion Drug Delivery, 12, 1459-1473 (2015).
5. Campbell, McKenzie L. Guerra, Fernanda. D.;Dhulekar, Jhilmil;  Alexis, Frank; Whitehead, Daniel. C.; “Target-Specific Capture of Enviromentally Relevant Gaseous Aldehydes and Carboxylic Acids with Functional Nanoparticles.” Chemistry, 21, 14834-42 (2015).
6. Pridgen, E.M., Alexis, F., Kuo, T.T., Levy-Nissenbaum, E., Blumberg, R.S., Langer, R., Farokhzad, O.C., “Transepithelial Transport of Fc-Targeted Nanoparticles Across the Intestinal Epithelium Barrier by the Neonatal Fc Receptor for Oral Delivery”, Science Translational Medicine, 5, 213 (2013).