Wilson Meng, PhD

The Meng lab focuses on design and characterization of inspired drug delivery systems for modulating immune functions.  The group pursues projects that bridge gaps between preclinical and clinical stages in drug development in enhancing drug bioavailability in diseased tissues while limiting systemic toxicities.   The strategic themes are to optimize experimental and approved biologics for locoregional treatments of graft rejection, type I diabetes, and solid tumors. Current research themes include: developing bioaffinity hydrogels formed by self-assembling peptides in delivering immunoregulatory antibodies and Fc fusion proteins; optimizing surface-functionalized microparticles for formulating recombinant proteins, nucleic acids, and poorly water-soluble small molecules as therapeutics; applying MHC bioinformatics and T cell epitope cross-reactivity mapping in predicting immunogenicity of recombinant protein therapeutics; and engineering artificial thymic organoids to reprogram T cells. View a list of Dr. Meng’s publications here. Dr. Meng received his PhD in Pharmaceutical Sciences from the University of Southern California.  After completing a postdoctoral fellowship at the UCLA School of Medicine, he joined Duquesne University, where he is currently Professor of Pharmaceutics.  Dr. Meng graduated from the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy and practiced pharmacy in Maryland and California.  He was a visiting scientist at the Molecular Biosensor and Imaging Center at Carnegie Mellon University.  He has served as grant reviewer for the National Institutes of Health and the Department of Defense.  He is an associate editor for the Journal of Pharmaceutical Innovation (SpringerNature), and has served as guest editor for Clinical Immunology (Elsevier).