Interests

• Gene delivery

• Microbiology

• Phage-based biotechnology
  

Shirley Wong

Alumni

Shirley Wong graduated in 2022 with a Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Sciences from the University of Waterloo School of Pharmacy. She worked extensively with the Slavcev Lab, with her area of focus being gene therapy, specifically the design of non-viral gene delivery vectors. As a part of her doctoral research, Shirley aimed to build a novel platform for generating gene delivery vectors based on the filamentous bacteriophage, M13. As a filamentous bacteriophage, M13 progeny bud out of their infected Escherichia coli host over the course of the bacterium's lifetime. These cells are essentially now lifelong phage producing "factories". She manipulated M13 to replicate and package a mammalian therapeutic gene cassette instead of their own genome; hence, upon introduction to E. coli, they can be turned into therapeutic "factories" that generate non-viral vectors ready for delivery.

Education

• B.Sc. Honours in Biomedical Science, University of Waterloo (2013)

• Ph.D. Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Waterloo (2022)

Publications

• Bacteriophage Interactions with Mammalian Tissue: Therapeutic Applications.
  Huh H, Wong S, St. Jean J, Slavcev R.
  Advanced Drug Delivery Reviews (2019)

• Production of double-stranded DNA ministrings.
  Wong. S., Lam, P., Nafissi, N., Denniss, S. & Slavcev, R.A.  
  Journal of Visualized Experiments (2016)

• DNA Ministrings: Linear covalently closed  minivectors for use in non-viral gene therapy with applications toward ovarian cancer. 
  Wong S. & Slavcev, R.A.
  Molecular Therapy (2015)

• Treating cancer with infection: A review on bacterial cancer therapy.
  Wong, S. & Slavcev, R. A.
  Letters in Applied Microbiology (2015)

Book Contributions

• Non-viral gene delivery.
  Sum, C. H., Shortall, S. M., Wong, S., Wettig, S. D.
  Nanomedicine – Gene Delivery, Imaging, and Evaluation Systems. Pages 3 - 68 (2018)

• Bacteriophages functionalized for gene delivery and the targeting of gene networks.
  Nicastro, J., Wong, S., and Slavcev, R. A.
  Bacteriophage Applications — Historical Perspectives and Future Applications. Pages 29-38 (2016)

• Phage probiotics.
  Wong, S.
  Bacteriophage Applications — Historical Perspectives and Future Applications. Pages 39-58 (2016)

• Phage-mediated immunomodulation.
  Nicastro, J., Wong, S., and Slavcev, R. A.
  Bacteriophage Applications — Historical Perspectives and Future Applications. Pages 69-82 (2016)