Assistant Professor
lizwayne@uw.edu

Elizabeth Wayne

We are evolving how we use immune cells for drug delivery and diagnostics

Immunoengineering
Tissue Regeneration
Drug and Gene Delivery
Cancer
Monocytes
Macrophages
Bioluminescence Imaging

The Wayne Research Group engineers tools and nanoparticles to modulate monocyte cell fate within chronic diseases. Monocytes are circulating immune cells that can infiltrate nearly every peripheral tissue and control the quality of local inflammation through differentiation and polarization processes. Because of this systemic to local influence, monocytes represent a therapeutic and diagnostic point of convergence for treating comorbidities. We explore three broad themes, delivery, diagnostics, and discovery. In drug delivery, we elucidate differences in cell membrane physiology between naive and disease trained cells to reverse-design nanoparticle systems. In our diagnostics section, we engineer imaging systems and cellular models to characterize macrophage phenotype within in vitro and in vivo disease-dependent contexts. Finally, in our discovery section, we seek to use machine learning tools, high throughput experimental methods, and computational modeling to synthesize nanoparticle design and macrophage phenotype information.

BA Physics, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA
MS Biomedical Engineering, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY
PhD Biomedical Engineering, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY

NCI T32 Carolina Cancer Nanotechnology Training Program
University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC

2022 Innovative Models for Undergraduate Research Fellow, Carnegie Mellon University
2021 PRIDE Functional & Translational Genomics Fellow, NHLBI
2020 Inaugural Young Investigator Distinguished Lectureship, BMES Black Women in BME Special Session
2017 TED Fellow, TED
2015 Distinguished Service Award, Cornell Meining School of Biomedical Engineering
2013 Alice & Constance Cook Award, Cornell University
2012 Distinguished Service Award, Cornell Diversity Programs in Engineering
2011 Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) Med-into-Grad Fellowship, Cornell University
2008 Moelis Access Science Fellow, University of Pennsylvania
2007 Ronald E. McNair Scholar, University of Pennsylvania

Aldarondo D, Wayne E. Monocytes as a convergent nanoparticle therapeutic target for cardiovascular diseases. Adv Drug Deliv Rev. 2022 Mar;182:114116. PubMed Central PMCID: PMC9359644.

Moore, E., Allen, J.B., Mulligan, C.J., and Wayne E.C. Ancestry of cells must be considered in bioengineering. Nat Rev Mater(2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41578-021-00397-7

Smith K., Lin C.Y., Gilpin, Y., Wayne. E.C.* and Dandin, M.* Measuring and Modeling Macrophage Growth using a Lab-on-CMOS Capacitance Sensing Microsystem. Accepted. Frontiers Bioengineering and Biotechnology.

Vinod N, Hwang D, Azam SH, Van Swearingen AED, Wayne E, Fussell SC, Sokolsky-Papkov M, Pecot CV, Kabanov AV. High-capacity poly(2-oxazoline) formulation of TLR 7/8 agonist extends survival in a chemo-insensitive, metastatic model of lung adenocarcinoma. Sci Adv. 2020 Jun;6(25):eaba5542. PubMed Central PMCID: PMC7299629.

Wayne EC, Long C, Haney MJ, Batrakova EV, Leisner TM, Parise LV, Kabanov AV. Targeted Delivery of siRNA Lipoplexes to Cancer Cells Using Macrophage Transient Horizontal Gene Transfer. Adv Sci (Weinh). 2019 Nov 6;6(21):1900582. PubMed Central PMCID: PMC6839649.

Wayne EC, Chandrasekaran S, Mitchell MJ, Chan MF, Lee RE, Schaffer CB, King MR. TRAIL-coated leukocytes that prevent the bloodborne metastasis of prostate cancer. J Control Release. 2016 Feb 10;223:215-223. PubMed Central PMCID: PMC4724502.

In the News

  • Four people smile for the camera while standing next to one another. A woman second from the left holds a rectangular plaque.

A New Biosensing Tool for Cancer Research

December 5th, 2025|Comments Off on A New Biosensing Tool for Cancer Research

Professor Elizabeth Wayne is developing a novel way of tracking cancer-fighting cells – and chalking up a series of professional recognitions as she does.

  • Elizabeth Wayne

New faculty member Elizabeth Wayne works to modulate immune cells to fight disease

December 6th, 2023|Comments Off on New faculty member Elizabeth Wayne works to modulate immune cells to fight disease

Elizabeth (Liz) Wayne, UW bioengineering’s newest faculty member, is joining the department as assistant professor of bioengineering on January 1. Wayne brings expertise in immunoengineering, translational research, drug and gene delivery, and biomaterials to [...]