December 13, 2007

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – Ho-Wook Jun, Ph.D., assistant professor in the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) Department of Biomedical Engineering, has received a Wallace H. Coulter Foundation 2007 Early Career Award for his proposal titled “Biomimetic Nano Matrix for a Drug Eluting Stent Application.” The award brings $240,000 to Jun’s research in the treatment of coronary artery disease using biomimetic drug eluting stents (DESs).

Biomimetics is a discipline in which scientists design and create processes, substances, devices or systems that imitate nature. Jun’s research interest is the biomimetic nanotechnology for many biomedical applications, and it includes adult stem cell based tissue regeneration, delivery of therapeutic molecules and development of novel biomedical devices. Biomimetic stents will be designed by mimicking essential properties of the wall of natural blood vessels.

“Coronary artery disease is the No. 1 cause of death in the United States,” Jun said. “Deployment of stents has been a major therapeutic method for treatment of the disease.”

Drug eluting stents contain drugs that potentially reduce the chance that arteries will become blocked again. DESs have been implanted in almost 6 million patients in the last three years. The stent industry has been worth $5.5 billion as of 2005. However, recently some limits and potential problems regarding their clinical patency have been reported.

“Success of this project will significantly impact patient care and future biomedical research by addressing the current limitations of available DESs,” Jun said.

Jun has been a member of the UAB faculty since August 2006. Prior to joining UAB, he was at Rice University as a Peter and Ruth Nicholas Post-Doctoral Fellow at Smalley Institute for Nanoscale Science and Technology. Jun is collaborating with Brigitta Brott, M.D., in the Department of Medicine and Interventional Cardiology, and with Peter Anderson, D.V.M., Ph.D., in the Department of Pathology.