Team

Dr. Gaurav Sahay

Professor, OSU/OHSU College of Pharmacy
Director, Center for Innovative Drug Delivery and Imaging

Dr. Gaurav Sahay is a Professor in the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences and co-Director of the Center for Innovative Drug Delivery and Imaging (CIDDI) at Oregon State University’s College of Pharmacy. His pioneering research focuses on developing advanced nanotechnology platforms, particularly lipid-based nanoparticles, to enhance the delivery of messenger RNA (mRNA) therapeutics for targeted treatments of diseases such as cystic fibrosis, retinal degeneration, and cancer. His work plays a crucial role in advancing our understanding of intracellular transport mechanisms essential for the effective delivery of nucleic acids to the cytosol. Dr. Sahay’s academic contributions are extensive, with 75 peer-reviewed publications in leading journals, including Science Advances, Nature Communications, Nature Biotechnology, Nature Nanotechnology, and Journal of Controlled Release. He is widely recognized as a leader in the field of drug delivery and nanomedicine. His honors include the 2013 AAPS Postdoctoral Fellow Award, the 2015 CRS T. Nagai Award, the 2016 AACP New Investigator Award, and the 2019 OHSU Distinguished Faculty Senate Award for Collaboration. He was also awarded the 2020 Phi Kappa Phi OSU Emerging Scholar Award and the 2020 CMBE Young Innovator Award, and was inducted as a Fellow of the Controlled Release Society (CRS) in 2024. Dr. Sahay leads multiple research projects funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, and various biotech companies, with recent support from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). His work has attracted significant funding—approximately $25 million—through a mix of federal grants, nonprofit foundations, and private sector partners like Novo Nordisk. He also serves as a consultant and scientific advisor to several biotech companies and venture capital firms, further expanding his impact on the biotech ecosystem. In addition to his research, Dr. Sahay is deeply committed to education and mentorship, teaching PharmD and PhD students and developing online courses through OSU’s eCampus. He chaired the NanoMedicine and Drug Delivery Symposium (NanoDDS) in 2018, Gene Delivery and Editing Focus Group at CRS and is part of AI@OSU advisory board and is a standing member of NIH’s Innovative NanoSystems and Nanotechnology study section. Dr. Sahay is also engaged in entrepreneurial ventures, having co-founded Enterx Bio and served as an advisor to Rare Air Inc., two Oregon-based companies that have successfully raised venture and SBIR funding and created biotech jobs in the region.

Chris Acosta

Lab Manager

Chris is a research assistant and lab manager working in Dr. Sahay’s research laboratory. He was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico and moved to Hillsboro, Oregon when he was 9 years old. He received a B.S. degree in Microbiology with a minor in Chemistry in 2017 from Oregon State University. During undergrad, Chris conducted research in multiple labs at OSU where he helped optimize assays. In the Sahay lab, Chris is currently working on gene delivery using lipid nanoparticles. Outside of lab, Chris enjoys working out, rock climbing, and playing with Polo.

Dr. Yulia Eygeris

Postdoctoral Scholar

Yulia received a Specialist (BS/MS) degree in Organic Chemistry at Novosibirsk State University, Russia, where she was working of preparation of paramagnetic liquid crystals with Dr. Igor Kirilyuk. She then set her way to pursue PhD outside of Russia to broaden her research interests in materials chemistry and ended up trading the snows of Siberia for red rocks of Utah. In her PhD, she studied nanoporous self-assemblies of polymer-brush silica nanoparticles with Prof. Ilya Zharov at University of Utah. She is a recipient of several research awards, including President’s Award for Extraordinary Undergraduate Students and Curie Club Graduate Research Award for the outstanding research. She brought her expertise in organic synthesis and nanoparticle characterization to the Sahay lab, where she’s exploring lipid nanoparticle formulations. In her free time, she enjoys playing video games, sewing, and exploring Oregon wineries with her husband.

Dr. Anindit Mukherjee

Sr. Research Associate

Anindit is a research associate in the Sahay lab.  He received his Ph.D. degree in Cellular and Integrative physiology from the University of Nebraska Medical center in 2012. As a post-doctoral researcher, he trained under Dr. Thomas Kleyman followed by stint with Dr. David Ellison and gained expertise on the regulation epithelial transport. In the Sahay lab, Anindit is focused on developing the lipid nanoparticle based nucleic acid delivery system as a viable therapy for normalizing ion channel and transporter activity in the diseased lung epithelia of cystic fibrosis patients.

Dr. Renee Ryals

Assistant Professor – OHSU

Renee was born and raised in Daytona Beach, Florida. She received her BS in Chemistry and her PhD in Molecular Cell Biology and Clinical and Translational Science at the University of Florida. Her dissertation focused on expanding the utility of AAV gene therapy for inherited retinal dystrophies by generating dual AAV vectors for the delivery of large transgenes. After graduation, Renee moved to Portland, Oregon for her post-doctoral training with Dr. Mark Pennesi where she evaluated neuroprotective agents and their ability to slow retinal degeneration in a light-induced retinopathy model. Currently, Renee is a Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Ophthalmology working alongside both Dr. Pennesi and Dr. Sahay in a combined effort to develop gene therapies for retinal degeneration. In her free time, Renee enjoys community and personal development. She enjoys finding opportunities to utilize her process-oriented facilitation and conflict resolution skills.

Dr. Mohit Gupta

Postdoctoral Scholar

Mohit pursued his Bachelor’s in Pharmacy from Delhi Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Research, India. His strong interest in Medicinal Chemistry took him to National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research, Mohali, where he completed his Master’s focusing on the design and synthesis of Cationic Amphiphilic Peptides as potential Antimicrobial Agents. Mohit then decided to come to United States to pursue his PhD in Medicinal Chemistry. His graduate work with Dr. Patrick Flaherty at Duquesne University included design and synthesis of novel molecules for the therapeutics of HIV, Cancer, and Cognitive Dysfunctions. As a Postdoctoral scholar in Dr. Sahay’s lab, he is working on developing novel ionizable lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) for gene delivery applications, particularly for Cystic Fibrosis and Ocular Disorders.

Marco Herrera

Graduate Student

Marco is a graduate student in the department of Pharmaceutical Sciences. He received his B.S. in Biochemistry & Molecular Biology from the University of California, Davis in 2011. After a three-year stint in assay development at Life Technologies Corp., he worked in the Fathman laboratory at Stanford University exploring various mechanisms of T-cell anergy and activation as they relate to autoimmune disorders. In the Sahay Lab, he is exploring avenues of mRNA delivery for genes and gene editors for the neural retina. Outside the lab, he enjoys astronomy, running, beer sampling and hanging out with his better half, Polo.

Jeonghwan Kim

Graduate Student

Jeonghwan is a graduate student and an amateur scuba diver who always dreams for diving into tropical water. David grew up in South Korea, and earned his bachelor’s degree in industrial pharmacy and the Korea pharmacist license while he studied in Yeungnam University, South Korea. He spent another two years for master’s degree in pharmacy in Prof. Jong Oh Kim’s laboratory to develop nanoparticles for anticancer drug delivery. After that, he worked as a formulation researcher for generic drugs in a pharmaceutical company for a while. A thirst for deep understanding in nanomedicine drove him to fly across Pacific ocean and join Sahay lab. His current research focus is developing better delivery systems for RNA therapeutics and their utilization in genetic diseases, including cystic fibrosis and cancers. In his free time, he listens to musics and tours local coffee shops in Portland.

Dylan Nelson

Graduate Student

Dylan is pursuing a master’s degree in Pharmaceutical Sciences. He is interested in automating nanoparticle assembly and nanoparticle mediated gene replacement therapy for ocular diseases. He has 17 years of experience in research labs that include clinical, for-profit, non-profit, and academic settings. He is listed as a co-author on 11 papers and as an inventor on one patent. He also serves as the Assistant Director of the OSU/CoP High Throughput Screening Services Lab.

Siddarth Patel

Graduate Student

Siddharth’s experience in both academia and industry ignited his passion for therapeutic research. He received his B. S. in Biomedical Engineering from The University of Utah where he was introduced to research. Siddharth’s main focus was a project developing polymer-drug conjugate combination therapy in Prof. Hamid Ghandehari’s laboratory. Subsequently, he furthered his education by pursuing a Master of Engineering at Cornell University. Here, he advanced his research experience, working on Halloysite nanotubes for drug delivery to circulating tumor cells (CTCs) in Prof. Michael King’s laboratory. These experiences allowed him to seamlessly transition to industry, where Sid worked on exciting R&D projects such as, polymeric nucleotide delivery systems, micellar chemotherapeutic delivery systems, as well as oral and targeted delivery of nanoparticles at Intezyne Technologies. The most exciting part of his experience at Intezyne was being able to take a transfection reagent kit, EZplex, from concept all the way to a commercial product. As part of the Sahay Lab, he is studying the mechanisms of uptake and endosomal escape of nanoparticles in a high-throughput fashion and developing novel polymer- and lipid-based delivery systems for RNA-therapeutics. Furthermore, he is utilizing state-of-the-art nanoparticle characterization and imaging techniques to dissect the nanoparticle structure-activity relationships to engineer materials with enhanced endosomal escape capabilities.  Finally, Sid is utilizing these potent nanoparticles for gene therapy in the eye for the prevention of vision loss.

Sahay Lab Alumni

Ms. Ema Robinson
Ms. Abeer Eltanway
Ms. Deuhazney Coley
Dr. Anna Brown
Dr. Ashwani Kumar Narayana
Peter Kwak
Marie Piatski
Kai Slaughter
Madi Mckinney
Rachel Mckinnon
Clemens Schulte
Fabian Weighardt