Shawn E. Lupold, Ph.D., is Associate Professor of Urology and Oncology. Dr. Lupold was trained as a Pre-IRTA fellow in the Laboratory of Human Carcinogenesis at the National Cancer Institute and received his Ph.D. in Pharmacology and Molecular Sciences from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He further trained in prostate cancer research as a post doctoral fellow in the Brady Urological Research Institute at Johns Hopkins.

The Lupold laboratory focuses on prostate cancer biology with the goal of exploiting prostate tissue-specificity to develop new diagnostic, prognostic and therapeutic agents. Research projects stem from basic cancer biology, such as studying the role of microRNAs in the prostate cancer phenotype, to translational projects such as targeted siRNA and gene therapy. One area of interest is high diversity polymer libraries, including aptamers and peptides, which can be screened to identify high affinity cancer ligands. With this approach Dr. Lupold developed the first RNA aptamers targeted to a cancer cell surface antigen. He and others have applied these PSMA-targeting aptamers to deliver various therapeutic and imaging packages to prostate cancer cells and tumors.