Penn Dental Medicine: Chauncey Egel Endowed Professor Henry Daniell |
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January 22, 2013,
Volume 59, No. 18 |
Adding to the depth of its research enterprise, Penn Dental Medicine announced the appointment of Dr. Henry Daniell as Chauncey Egel Endowed Professor in the departments of biochemistry and pathology. Dr. Daniell comes to Penn from the University of Central Florida (UCF).
A highly respected researcher across disciplines, Dr. Daniell’s lab focuses on the development of a novel concept to reduce the cost of prescription drugs. Dr. Daniell has developed a system to produce biopharmaceuticals in a protective coating so that they can be delivered by mouth without being destroyed by the stomach. This new platform reduces cost by eliminating prohibitively expensive fermentation, purification, cold storage/transportation and sterile injections currently used in the production and delivery of biopharmaceuticals. Some of his ongoing projects include the development of edible vaccines for polio, tuberculosis, malaria, cholera, and bioterrorism agents like anthrax and plague.
Dr. Daniell uses his oral delivery concept to address several autoimmune disorders, including type 1 diabetes or adverse immunological reactions in the treatment of hemophilia. He also uses therapeutic protein delivery to degrade plaques in advanced Alzheimer’s brains or regulate blood sugar levels in type 2 diabetes. His widely translational work, which has important applications to mucosal immunity—a topic of considerable importance in dental research—has led to the award of more than 50 patents.
“Dr. Daniell brings a passion for science and teaching that will significantly advance the educational and research missions of the School,” said Dr. Denis Kinane, Morton Amsterdam Dean of Penn Dental Medicine.
Dr. Daniell joined UCF in 1998 as professor of molecular biology and since 2002 has been a Pegasus Professor, a prestigious UCF title that recognizes outstanding accomplishments in teaching, research and service. In 2002, he also was named chair of the UCF Board of Trustees and since 2008, had been a professor of medicine at UCF. Dr. Daniell was inducted as a foreign member of the Italian National Academy of Sciences as the 14th American; Benjamin Franklin was the first American honored in 1786. Dr. Daniell is also a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Among many awards, he was the recipient of the UCF Research Incentive Award for outstanding research contributions (2002-2012); the Bayer Hemophilia Award, Buenos Aires, one of five global awards for outstanding hemophilia research (2010); and the American Diabetes Association Award for outstanding contributions in diabetes research (2008). During his tenure at UCF, he also introduced the professional science master’s program and the bachelor of science program in biotechnology.
Throughout his career, Dr. Daniell has served on numerous panels within the US National Academy of Science; the National Institutes of Health (NIH), National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases; and the NIH, Center for Scientific Review. He leads an accomplished research program, supported by the NIH and the United States Department of Agriculture, as well as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation and Bayer. |