IASNM Radiant Flashpoints Educational Web-Series – January 10, 2026
Biomimetic Nanovesicles – A Modular Platform for Drug and Small RNA Deliveries, and Immunotherapy
RAMASAMY PAULMURUGAN, Ph.D.
Professor of Radiology Director,
Cellular Pathway Imaging Laboratory (CPIL)
Molecular Imaging Program at Stanford (MIPS)
Member Bio-X, Stanford Cancer Institute, and
Canary Center for Cancer Early Detection,
Department of Radiology Stanford University School of Medicine,
Stanford University
Objectives
📌A brief discussion on the types of biomimetic nanovesicles
📌 Detailed discussion on the engineering and construction of immunomodulatory biomimetic nanovesicles
📌 Application of biomimetic nanovesicles in drug delivery, vaccine, and immunotherapy
📌 Clinical translational feasibility of biomimetic nanovesicles in cancer immunotherapy
Ramasamy Paulmurugan is a Professor in the Department of Radiology at Stanford University and a member of the Canary Center for cancer early detection, the Molecular Imaging Program at Stanford (MIPS), Stanford Cancer Institute (SCI), Wu Tsai Neuroscience Institute, and the Stanford Bio-X program. Paulmurugan received his Masters Degree in Biomedical Genetics (1991) and PhD in Molecular Virology (1997) from the University of Madras, India. After serving as a scientist for four years in Rajiv Gandhi Center for Biotechnology, Trivandrum, India, he joined the School of Medicine at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) as a visiting scientist in 2001. In 2003, he moved to Stanford as a Senior Research Scientist. Since 2009, he has been a faculty member in the Department of Radiology at Stanford University under the Molecular Imaging Program (MIPS) and Canary Center for Cancer Early Detection.
Paulmurugan has more than 25 years of experience in the use of in vivo imaging modalities such as bioluminescence, fluorescence, PET, SPECT, US, MRI, and CT, for monitoring different cellular events in small (mice and rats) and large animal models (pig and dog). He published over 250 journal articles, 9 filed patents, 27 book chapters, and one book to his credit (H-Index: 60). In addition to his research, he contributes to the academic landscape by teaching (immunooncology), reviewing grants for esteemed organizations such as the NIH, and DoD, and by evaluating manuscripts for publication in journals and conference proceedings. His expertise spans nearly two decades, focusing on imaging modalities, particularly in the realms of molecular imaging and cancer biology. He received several awards from various scientific organizations for his contributions to the scientific communities. He was selected as a Distinguished Investigator in 2018 by The Academy for Radiology & Biomedical Imaging Research, RSNA.
Paulmurugan is a pioneer in developing split-reporter protein complementation systems for different reporter genes (luciferases, fluorescent proteins, and thymidine kinase), and has been using them for imaging cellular protein-protein interactions, protein folding and protein degradation in living animals. Currently, his lab (Cellular Pathway Imaging Laboratory (CPIL)) is working on the application of different imaging strategies to evaluate the therapeutic role of ERb, another important estrogen receptor, as one of the important players in estrogen biology. Other applications where his lab currently applying these assays include studying protein-protein interactions involved in estrogen receptor signaling, Nrf2-mediated antioxidant signaling in chemoresistance, p53-sumoylation mediated chemotherapy responses in cancer, NFkB mediated cytokine signaling in cancer, and APP and Tau proteins sumoylations in Alzheimer’s disease.
