Kathryn Whitehead
Eddie Goldenberg Research Chair of Canada in Translational Drug Delivery
Dr. Kathryn Whitehead is a leading figure in lipid nanoparticle drug delivery, a field that has rapidly grown since its use in the delivery of COVID-19 vaccines. Her work has fundamentally advanced the transport of fragile therapeutic molecules are transported into the specific cells and organs where they are needed.
A chemical engineer by training, Dr. Whitehead combines materials synthesis, biology, and high-throughput screening to tackle drug-delivery challenges that have long resisted conventional methods. Her experimental approach speeds up the creation and testing of new materials and has produced state-of-the-art technologies and design principles that are now widely used by researchers and industry.
What is the main challenge your Eddie Goldenberg Research Chair of Canada program is addressing, and how are you approaching it?
My research program will engineer lipid nanoparticles, which are tiny fat particles that package up the RNA and protect it as it travels to diseased cells. Most lipid nanoparticles discovered so far accumulate only in the liver, leaving diseases of the lungs, brain and other organs without effective RNA treatment. My lab addresses this gap by designing and testing large libraries of new lipids to identify the chemical features that direct the nanoparticles to specific tissues.
I will also investigate a problem the field has largely overlooked: the same medicine can work differently depending on whether a patient is male or female, pregnant, breastfeeding or going through menopause. My lab will be one of the first to bring together advanced drug delivery engineering and sex-based biology.
What is the main thing you would like to achieve as an Eddie Goldenberg Research Chair of Canada, and what are the potential impacts of your work?
We will translate Canada's foundational lipid nanoparticle science into a new generation of RNA medicines designed to target specific organs and correctly address the needs of specific patients. My program will also measure how hormonal changes across a woman's life affect drug delivery and will use that knowledge to build treatments better suited to women's biology.
These two directions come together in focused disease projects. For example, we are developing single-dose RNA therapies for pregnancy complications, like preeclampsia, that can be safely discontinued after birth. We are also engineering lung-targeted treatments for cystic fibrosis and pulmonary fibrosis, and brain-targeted treatments for neurological conditions.
What is your primary motivation behind the research you do? What drew you to this work?
I'm an engineer because I like to make things that work, and I've focused on biomedicine because I want to improve the lives of patients and the people who love them. My work spans several areas, one of which is the development of genetic medicine. By enabling the RNA to reach specific places, like the brain, we hope to create new therapies for conditions like Huntington's Disease and Fragile X Syndrome.
What drew you to UBC to do this work, and what are you most looking forward to about coming here?
UBC is the birthplace of the lipid nanoparticles that underpin our research. Dr. Pieter Cullis, professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at UBC, has spent decades building an ecosystem here that simply doesn't exist anywhere else. UBC has a great track record of turning nanoparticle discoveries into companies and is home to many potential collaborators working on adjacent problems. For example, I can't wait to start working with Dr. Anna Blakney, associate professor in UBC’s Michael Smith Laboratories and School of Biomedical Engineering, on lipid nanoparticle immunology. It's this combination of discovery, translation and community that drew me to UBC and why I'm looking forward to calling it home.
What does it mean to you to have been appointed as an Eddie Goldenberg Research Chair of Canada, and how is it going to help you advance your already internationally recognized research?
Being named an Eddie Goldenberg Research Chair of Canada means, first, that a country has looked at our work on gene medicine and maternal therapeutics and decided it's worth backing at a very high level. Such a strong investment enables long-term, visionary research, and we'll be able to take on higher-risk projects that will accelerate clinical translation. But what this really comes down to is people: the students and collaborators I get to build this with, and the patients we're ultimately doing it for.
