Bruce Yu

Yu Group

Contact

Email: byu@rx.umaryland.edu

Call: (240) 314-6155

Education

  • Postdoctoral Research, Protein Engineering, University of Alberta, CANADA, 1997-2000
  • Postdoctoral Research, NMR Spectroscopy, SUNY Buffalo, 1996-1997
  • Ph.D., Biophysics, Johns Hopkins University, 1996
  • B.S., Biochemistry, Peking University, CHINA, 1987

Profile

Dr. Yu is a biophysicist and biochemist by training. He has worked on protein biophysics, the development of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) agents, and biomaterials engineering.

Dr. Yu has synthesized dendrimer imaging agents for multi-color F-19 MRI and advanced MRI technology to evaluate the mechanical properties of soft materials and biological tissues.  He is also interested in the link between molecular chirality and material mechanical properties, and how chirality can be exploited to create biomaterials with novel mechanical properties for cell growth and differentiation. Dr. Yu is an inventor of several new technologies and holds six issued patents, including for dendrimer synthesis, biomaterials engineering, and noninvasive analytical technologies.

CURRENT RESEARCH

Flow wNMR setup in the Yu lab

Current research in the Yu lab involves regulatory science for biologics and nano-drugs. Specifically, the Yu group is developing nondestructive analytical technologies for pharmaceutical solutions of drug substances and drug products and for product inspection, using a variety of physicochemical techniques.

Process Analytical Technology

Biomanufacturing requires process analytical technologies (PATs) for monitoring and control. Dr. Yu’s group develops contact-free in-line PAT for real-time monitoring of bioprocessing. The PAT is based on flow water proton nuclear magnetic resonance (flow wNMR). He is collaborating with pharma/biotech companies to implement flow wNMR in industrial settings. Vaccine manufacturing is a major focus.    

Contrast between destructive and nondestructive analytics

Nondestructive Analytics

Dr. Yu’s group develops nondestructive analytics for biologics and other complex drugs. The nondestructive analytics are based on wNMR, and applications include drug formulation, drug substance characterization, and drug product inspection. The unique capability of wNMR is that it can quantitatively inspect finished drug products without opening the vials. The Yu group has applied wNMR to insulin products and vaccines.

Publications
2024
In-situ biophysical characterization of high-concentration protein formulations using wNMR.
2023
Correction: Preventive Pharmacovigilance: timely and precise prevention of adverse events through person-level patient screening and dose-level product surveillance.
Preventive Pharmacovigilance: timely and precise prevention of adverse events through person-level patient screening and dose-level product surveillance.
Sedimentation behavior of quality and freeze-damaged aluminum-adjuvanted vaccines by wNMR.
Analysis of the Adsorbed Vaccine Formulations Using Water Proton Nuclear Magnetic Resonance-Comparison with Optical Analytics.
Correlated analytical and functional evaluation of higher order structure perturbations from oxidation of NISTmAb.
2022
Assessing Antigen-Adjuvant Complex Stability Against Physical Stresses By wNMR.
2021
Excipient Innovation Through Precompetitive Research.
Rapid and Noninvasive Quantification of Capsid Gene Filling Level Using Water Proton Nuclear Magnetic Resonance.
Knockout of Anopheles stephensi immune gene LRIM1 by CRISPR-Cas9 reveals its unexpected role in reproduction and vector competence.
All vials are not the same: Potential role of vaccine quality in vaccine adverse reactions.
Inspecting Insulin Products Using Water Proton NMR. I. Noninvasive vs Invasive Inspection.
Evaluation of the Physicochemical Properties of the Iron Nanoparticle Drug Products: Brand and Generic Sodium Ferric Gluconate.
Grand Challenges in Pharmaceutical Research Series: Ridding the Cold Chain for Biologics.
2020
Monitoring of the sedimentation kinetics of vaccine adjuvants using water proton NMR relaxation.
Quality assurance at the point-of-care: Noninvasively detecting vaccine freezing variability using water proton NMR.
2019
Magnetic Resonance Relaxometry for Determination of Protein Concentration and Aggregation.
Flow Water Proton NMR: In-Line Process Analytical Technology for Continuous Biomanufacturing.
Correction to: Nondestructive Quantitative Inspection of Drug Products Using Benchtop NMR Relaxometry-the Case of NovoMix® 30.
Nondestructive Quantitative Inspection of Drug Products Using Benchtop NMR Relaxometry-the Case of NovoMix® 30.