Profile
Dr. Michael Pungente joined Weill Cornell Medicine - Qatar (WCM-Q) as Assistant Professor of Organic Chemistry in 2003 and was promoted to Associate Professor in 2011 and to Professor in 2016.
He has a Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of British Columbia (UBC), where he was Lecturer with the Department of Chemistry and then an Instructor with the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences at UBC.
Before joining WCM-Q, Dr. Pungente held the position of Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemistry at Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, Ontario. His area of research includes the synthesis and characterization of novel lipids and polymers as potential non-viral gene therapy reagents.
Selected Publications
- P. Parvizi-Bahktar, J. Mendez-Campos, L. Raju, N.A. Khalique, E. Jubeli, H. Larsen, D. Nicholson, M.D. Pungente and T.M. Fyles; Towards quantitative structure-activity correlation in transfection promoted by pyridinium cationic lipids. Org. Biomol. Chem., 2016, DOI: 10.1039/C6OB00041J.
- Emile Jubeli, Amanda B Maginty, Nada Abdul Khalique, Liji Raju, Mohamad Abdulhai†, Helge Larsen, David Nicholson, Michael D. Pungente, William P. D. Goldring; Next generation macrocyclic and acyclic cationic lipids for gene transfer: Synthesis and in vitro evaluation. Bioorg. Med. Chem. 2015, 23, 6364–6378.
- Emile Jubeli, Christer L. Øpstad, Muhammad Zeeshan, Hans-Richard Sliwka, Vassilia Partali, Arnljot Elgsaeter, Natalia Bilchuk, Cory Zegel, Howard H. Lou, Philip L. Leopold, Liji Raju, Nada Abdul Khalique, Michael D. Pungente; Novel polyene-based cationic lipids as visually traceable siRNA transfer reagents. Eur. J. Pharm. Biopharm. 2014, 89, 280-289.
- Øpstad, C.L., Zeeshan, M., Zaidi, A., Sliwka H.R., Partali V., Nicholson, D.G., Surve, C., Izower, M.A., Bilchuk, N., Lou, H.H., Leopold, P.L., Larsen, H., Liberska, A., Abdul Khalique N., Raju L., Flinterman M., Jubeli, E., and Pungente, M.D. Novel cationic polyene glycol phospholipids as DNA transfer reagents – lack of a structure-activity relationship due to uncontrolled self-assembling processes. Chem. Phys. Lipids 2014, 183, 117-136.
- Paria Parvizi, Emile Jubeli, Liji Raju, Nada Abdul Khalique, Ahmed Almeer, Hebatalla Allam, Maryem Al Manaa, Helge Larsen, David Nicholson, Michael D. Pungente and Thomas M. Fyles. Correlation of molecular parameters with lipoplex structure and transfection efficacy in pyridinium-based cationic lipids. Int. J. Pharm. 2014, 461, 145–156.
- Christer L. Øpstad, Hans-Richard Sliwka, Vassilia Partali, Arnljot Elgsaeter, Philip Leopold, Emile Jubeli, Nada Abdul Khalique, Liji Raju, Michael D. Pungente. Synthesis, self-assembling and gene delivery potential of a novel highly unsaturated, conjugated cationic phospholipid. Chem. Phys. Lipids 2013, 170-171, 65-73.
- William P.D. Goldring, Emile Jubeli, Rachael A. Downs, Adam J.S. Johnston, Nada Abdul Khalique, Liji Raju, Deena Wafadari, Michael D. Pungente, Novel macrocyclic and acyclic cationic lipids for gene transfer: Synthesis and in vitro evaluation. Bioorg. Med. Chem. Lett., 2012, 22, 4686-4692.
- Pungente, M.D.; Jubeli, E.; Øpstad, C.L.; Al-Kawaz, M.; Barakat, N.; Ibrahim, T.; Khalique, N.A.; Raju, L.; Jones, R.; Leopold, P.L.; Sliwka, H.-R.; Partali, V. Synthesis and Preliminary Investigations of the siRNA Delivery Potential of Novel, Single-Chain Rigid Cationic Carotenoid Lipids. Molecules 2012, 17, 3484-3500.