Paul Wender

About

Paul Wender is the Francis W. Bergstrom Professor of Chemistry at Stanford University, with a courtesy appointment in the Department of Chemical and Systems Biology. He earned his B.S. in Chemistry from Wilkes College and his Ph.D. in Chemistry from Yale University in 1973. He was an NIH Postdoctoral Fellow at Columbia University before serving on the faculty at Harvard University. His research group addresses unsolved problems in chemistry, synthesis, biology, medicine, and materials science by utilizing new computational tools, reactions, reagents, strategies, and design. The lab emphasizes the use of chemistry, design, and synthesis to tackle significant biological and medical issues, including the eradication of HIV/AIDS, overcoming resistant cancer, cancer immunotherapy, and treating cognitive disorders such as Alzheimer's disease. Professor Wender's work is supported by affiliations with the Medical School, Imaging Center, Chemical Biology Program, and Molecular Therapeutics Program, along with numerous collaborations. His research has been recognized with numerous awards, including the Tetrahedron Prize, Prelog Medal, Arthur Cope Award, Cohen Award for Excellence in Medicinal Chemistry, and the Research Award of the German Bioactives and Biotechnology Leibniz Alliance. He has also received several teaching awards, such as the Hoagland Prize, Bing Teaching Award, and the Dean's Teaching Award. He is an elected member of the US National Academy of Sciences, a foreign…

Research topics

• Biology
• Immunology
• Virology
• Medicine
• Biochemistry
• Cell biology
• Neuroscience
• Genetics

Selected publications

• Engineering circular RNA for enhanced protein production

  Nature Biotechnology · 2022-07-18 · 419 citations

  articleOpen access

  Circular RNAs (circRNAs) are stable and prevalent RNAs in eukaryotic cells that arise from back-splicing. Synthetic circRNAs and some endogenous circRNAs can encode proteins, raising the promise of circRNA as a platform for gene expression. In this study, we developed a systematic approach for rapid assembly and testing of features that affect protein production from synthetic circRNAs. To maximize circRNA translation, we optimized five elements: vector topology, 5' and 3' untranslated regions,…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Circular RNA vaccine induces potent T cell responses

  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · 2023-05-08 · 144 citations

  articleOpen access

  Circular RNAs (circRNAs) are a class of RNAs commonly found across eukaryotes and viruses, characterized by their resistance to exonuclease-mediated degradation. Their superior stability compared to linear RNAs, combined with previous work showing that engineered circRNAs serve as efficient protein translation templates, make circRNA a promising candidate for RNA medicine. Here, we systematically examine the adjuvant activity, route of administration, and antigen-specific immunity of circRNA vac…

  PublisherDOI

• Latency reversal plus natural killer cells diminish HIV reservoir in vivo

  Nature Communications · 2022 · 71 citations

  HIV is difficult to eradicate due to the persistence of a long-lived reservoir of latently infected cells. Previous studies have shown that natural killer cells are important to inhibiting HIV infection, but it is unclear whether the administration of natural killer cells can reduce rebound viremia when anti-retroviral therapy is discontinued. Here we show the administration of allogeneic human peripheral blood natural killer cells delays viral rebound following interruption of anti-retroviral t…

  DOI

• An mRNA SARS-CoV-2 Vaccine Employing Charge-Altering Releasable Transporters with a TLR-9 Agonist Induces Neutralizing Antibodies and T Cell Memory

  ACS Central Science · 2021 · 67 citations

  T cell memory.

  DOI

• Charge-altering releasable transporters enhance mRNA delivery in vitro and exhibit in vivo tropism

  Nature Communications · 2023-11-01 · 49 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior authorCorresponding

  The introduction of more effective and selective mRNA delivery systems is required for the advancement of many emerging biomedical technologies including the development of prophylactic and therapeutic vaccines, immunotherapies for cancer and strategies for genome editing. While polymers and oligomers have served as promising mRNA delivery systems, their efficacy in hard-to-transfect cells such as primary T lymphocytes is often limited as is their cell and organ tropism. To address these problem…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Recent grants

• Functional Materials Through Synthesis Informed Design

  NSF · $585k · 2019–2022

• New Materials to Deliver mRNA: Applications in Cancer Immunotherapy

  NIH · $2.1M · 2020–2025

• Synthetic Studies Related to Cancer Research/Treatment

  NIH · $12.8M · 1981–2027

Frequent coauthors

• Kazuhiro Irie

  Doshisha University

  52 shared

• Hajime Ohigashi

  42 shared

• Robert M. Waymouth

  Stanford University

  42 shared

• Zhi‐Xiang Yu

  Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences

  40 shared

• Susan L. Mooberry

  The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio

  29 shared

• K. N. Houk

  University of California, Los Angeles

  29 shared

• Jonathan B. Rothbard

  Stanford University

  28 shared

• Gabriel G. Gamber

  Novartis (United States)

  28 shared

Awards & honors

• Tetrahedron Prize
• Prelog Medal (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology)
• Arthur Cope Award (American Chemical Society)
• Cohen Award for Excellence in Medicinal Chemistry (Israel Ch…
• Research Award of the German Bioactives and Biotechnology Le…

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