Alexander V. Kabanov, Ph.D., Dr.Sci.

Alexander “Sasha” Kabanov, Ph.D., Dr.Sci., is the Mescal S. Ferguson Distinguished Professor and Director of the Center for Nanotechnology in Drug Delivery at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy and Director of the Carolina Institute for Nanomedicine at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Kabanov graduated from M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University (MSU) in 1984, where he also received Ph.D. in 1987 and D.Sc. in 1990. He started his scientific career in the Soviet Union and continued it in the United States first, at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, Nebraska (1994-2012) where he founded the first academic nanomedicine center in the United States (2004-), and then at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (2012-).

Kabanov has conducted pioneering research in the nanomedicine field including the use of polymeric micelles, DNA/polycation complexes, block ionomer complexes, nanogels, nanoparticle-macrophage carriers and exosomes for delivery of small drugs, nucleic acids and polypeptides to treat cancers and diseases of the central nervous system. He co-invented the first polymeric micelle drug to enter clinical trials to treat cancer and has been instrumental in establishment of polymeric micelles as nanotechnology used in clinically approved and marketed products. Kabanov holds 34 United States patents and over 50 foreign patents. He co-founded several companies focusing on therapies of cancers and diseases of the central nervous system.

Kabanov has published more than 300 scientific papers and his work has been cited over 29,000 times (Hirsch index 91 as of January 2018). He was named the Thomson Reuters Highly Cited Researcher in Pharmacology and Toxicology in 2014 and 2018 and Clarivate Analytics Russian Highly Cited Researcher in Life Sciences in 2016. His cumulative research support in academia as principal investigator has been more than $54 million. His inventions have attracted over $60 million in private, foundation, and company-sponsored R&D funding in industry. In 2003 he founded NanoDDS, the first nanomedicine symposium series in the United States, which is now held annually. In 2016 he organized the industry-academia Carolina Nanoformulation Workshop, which is now held biannually. He co-chaired and chaired Gordon Research Conferences “Drug Carriers in Medicine and Biology” (2006) and “Cancer Nanotechnology” (2017).

Kabanov was a founder and director of the NIH Center of Biomedical Research Excellence (CoBRE) “Nebraska Center for Nanomedicine” (2008-2012), and is a Director of NCI’s T32 Carolina Cancer Nanotechnology Training Program. As of January 2018 he has trained 35 graduate students and 30 postdoctoral scientists, of whom 13 have become faculty members. Kabanov is a recipient of a Megagrant from Russian Government (2010-2014) and professor at MSU where he has established a laboratory with the Megagrant support. He is a member of the Science Council of the Ministry of Education and Science of Russian Federation (2015-present), was a chair of the NIH Biomaterials and Biointerfaces Study Section (2006-2008) and has served in a number of other major advisory roles for sciences in the United States and abroad.