Hari Krishna Sajja, Ph.D.

Emory CCNE Distinguished Fellow

Dr. Sajja received a Bachelor of Pharmacy degree at S.C. S. College of Pharmacy in India. He then obtained Master of Technology in Biotechnology in the Department of Chemical Engineering at Andhra University in India. He then obtained his PhD degree at University of Mysore in India in chemical engineering. During his previous postdoctoral training, he further developed expertise in protein engineering, production of recombinant proteins and molecular biology.

As a postdoctoral fellow in the CCNE, Dr. Sajja will develop new tumor targeting ligands, including recombinant proteins, cyclic peptidomimitics and small molecules that specifically bind to tumor cells with a high affinity. He will engineer new generations of tumor targeted nanoparticles and examine the specificity and sensitivity of in vivo tumor imaging. In collaboration with Dr Shuming Nie and Andrew Wang, Dr. Sajja will also develop biodegradable and pH sensitive copolymers for encapsulation of chemotherapy drugs or small molecules onto the surface of nanoparticles. Dr. Sajja will be jointly supervised by Drs. Yang, Mao and Nie. He will also collaborate with Dr. Shin for translating those dual functional nanoparticles into clinical application. His expertise in chemical engineering, protein chemistry, production of recombinant proteins, molecule biology and pharmacology will benefit greatly to several research projects in the CCNE.