Anna Blakney
Assistant Professor
- Self-amplifying RNA
- lipid nanoparticles
- gene therapy
- drug delivery
- immunoengineering
Dr. Anna Blakney is an Assistant Professor and Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in the Michael Smith Laboratories and School of Biomedical Engineering at UBC. She received her Bachelor of Science in Chemical & Biological Engineering from the University of Colorado at Boulder, and her PhD in Bioengineering from the University of Washington. She completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Imperial College London on the development of molecular and biomaterial engineering strategies for delivery of self-amplifying RNA. Her lab uses bioengineering, molecular biology and immunology approaches to develop the next generation of RNA vaccines and therapies. Her research has been published in a variety of top tier journals including ACS Nano, Nature Communications, Molecular Therapy, Biomaterials, Journal of Controlled Release, and Advanced Materials. Dr. Blakney has received numerous awards including the 2023 MIT Tech Review’s 35 Innovators Under 35, 2022 Gairdner Early Career Investigator Award, the 2021 UBC President’s Award for Public Education Through Media and the 2022 Controlled Release Society Gene Delivery and Editing Focus Group Young Investigator Award.