Some medicines may harm healthy tissue while treating the targeted disease, causing side effects and limiting the success of the treatment.
As a Schmidt Science Fellow, Paul aims to change this by developing intelligent medicines built from synthetic cells. These agents can be guided to disease sites using sound waves and will activate only when they detect specific signals in their surroundings, such as the acidity around a tumor. They will release therapeutic molecules in a controlled sequence to trigger the body’s own healing responses, offering a potentially safer and more precise way to treat complex diseases.
Paul’s research could help lay the foundation for a new kind of autonomous medicine, where smart therapeutic systems actively collaborate with the body to help treat disease.
Paul will pivot from Biomedical Engineering to Synthetic Biology