Marianna Foldvari

Dr. Marianna Foldvari is an internationally recognized expert in nanomedicine. Dr Foldvari’s interest includes pharmaceutical nanotechnology, non-invasive drug, protein and gene delivery system design (dermal, transdermal, transmucosal, ocular and intrapulmonary) for regenerative medicine in dermatology, ophthalmology and immunology

For more information see Dr. Foldvari’s Research Group

Dr. Foldvari teaches at both the graduate and undergraduate levels. Course offerings have included:

PHARM 124 Pharmaceutics

PHARM 604 Gene Therapy

• Chen, D.W. and Foldvari, M. (2018). Retinal multipotent stem cell derived “MiEye” spheroid 3D culture model for preclinical screening of non-viral gene delivery systems. Precision Nanomedicine. July;1(2):106-123 DOI:10.29016/180711.1
• Chen D.W., Pauloff K. and Foldvari M. (2018) Three-dimensional co-culture bioassay for screening of retinal gene delivery systems. Methods Mol. Biol. 1715:79-88. doi: 10.1007/978-1-4939-7522-8_6.

• Calderon-Nieva D, Bandara-Goonewardene K, Gomis S, Foldvari M. (2017) Veterinary vaccine nanotechnology: pulmonary and nasal delivery in livestock animals. Drug Deliv. Transl. Res. DOI 10.1007/s13346-017-0400-9

• Bandara Goonewardene K, Popowich S, Gunawardana, T, Gupta A, Kurukulasuriya S, Karunarathna  R, Chow-Lockerbie B, Ahmed KA, Tikoo S, Foldvari, M, Willson P and Gomis S.^. (2017) Intrapulmonary Delivery of CpG-ODN Microdroplets Provides Protection Against Escherichia coli Septicemia in Neonatal Broiler Chickens Avian Dis. 61 (4), 503-511.
• Chen DW and Foldvari M. (2016) In vitro bioassay model for screening non-viral neurotrophic factor gene delivery systems for glaucoma treatment. Drug Deliv. Transl. Res. 6:676-685. doi:10.1007/s13346-016-0324-9
• Foldvari M. and Kumar P. (2017) Perspectives on dermal delivery of macromolecular drugs. In: Percutaneous penetration enhancers. Drug penetration into/through the skin. Dragicevic-Curic, N. and Maibach, H. (eds.), Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg DOI 10.1007/978-3-662-53270-6_21
• Foldvari M and Chen, DW. (2016) The intricacies of neurotrophic factor therapy for retinal ganglion cell rescue in glaucoma: a case for gene therapy. Invited Review, Neural Regen. Res.11:875-877.
• Foldvari M, Chen DW, Nafissi N, Calderon D, Narsineni L, Rafiee, A. (2016) Non-viral gene therapy: gains and challenges of non-invasive administration methods. Invited review for the North American Special Issue; J. Control. Rel.240:165-190.doi:10.1016/j.jconrel.2015.12.012
• Foldvari M. and Kumar P. (2016) Permeation enhancement by molecular organization switching (MOS): Biphasic vesicles for the cutaneous delivery of proteins. In: Percutaneous penetration enhancers. Chemical Methods in Penetration Enhancement. Dragicevic-Curic, N. and Maibach, H. (eds.), Springer pp. 309-318. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-47862-2_20
• Gharagozloo M, Rafiee A, Chen DW, Foldvari M. (2015) A flow cytometric approach to study the mechanism of gene delivery to cells by gemini-lipid nanoparticles: an implication for cell membrane nanoporation. J. Nanobiotechnol. 13:62.
• Huzil JT, Saliaj E, Ivanova M, Gharagozloo M, Loureiro JM, LamprechtC, Korinek A, Chen DW, Foldvari M. (2015) Selective nuclear localization of siRNA by metallic versus semiconducting single wall carbon nanotubes in keratinocytes. Future Sci. OA FSO17
• Dong C, Badea I, Poorghorban M, Verrall R, Foldvari M. (2015) Impact of phospholipids on plasmid packaging and toxicity of gemini nanoparticles. J. Materials Chem. B, 3: 8806-8822.

For more see this list of Dr. Foldvari’s publications

• WIN Research Leaders Award
• Honorary Award for Outstanding Lifetime Achievements in Nanoscience and Nanotechnology in Ontario
• AAPS Fellow
• The AFPC Pfizer Research Career Award
• YWCA Women of Distinction Award,
• Saskatchewan Top 25 Science Achievement Award
• Sabex Award of Innovation

Dr Foldvari  currently serves as Editorial Board Member of the Journal of Controlled Release (IF:8.4), Associate Editor for Precision Nanomedicine and the Frontiers in Neuroscience, OA Drug Design and Delivery and for the past ten years (2006-2016) served as Associate Editor for Nanomedicine: NBM (IF: 6.9). Dr Foldvari serves as a grant reviewer on CIHR, NSERC, CFI, NIH and AAAS panels and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Global Health Initiatives review board. Dr Foldvari is one of the Founding Directors of the American Society for Nanomedicine (ASNM) and the International Society of Nanomedicine (ISNM). She served as Board Member for Genome Prairie and was a Member of the Advisory Committee to the Prime Minister on Science and Technology and a Founder of the Canadian Society of Pharmaceutical Sciences (CSPS).  Dr. Foldvari continues to conduct collaborative research with her colleagues in the Western College of Veterinary Medicine and College of Pharmacy and Nutrition at the University of Saskatchewan in the areas of gene therapy and vaccine development. In other areas of non-invasive technologies to deliver therapeutic DNA and proteins into the body and to specifically target these therapeutics to diseased tissues she has collaborations at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University, Semmelweis University, University of Colorado, University College London and University of Queensland. She also collaborates with colleagues and research scientists at the National Synchrotron Light Source at Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York and the Canadian Light Source.

BSc Pharmacy (Semmelweis Medical University)

DPharmSci (Semmelweis Medical University)

PhD Pharmaceutical Sciences (Dalhousie University)