Dr. Yoon Yeo is an assistant professor at Industrial and Physical Pharmacy and Biomedical Engineering (courtesy appointment) at Purdue University. Dr. Yeo received B.S. and M.S. degrees in Pharmacy at Seoul National University, Korea, and Ph.D. at Purdue University under the supervision of Prof. Kinam Park. She then received post-doctoral training from Prof. Robert Langer at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Her areas of expertise are therapeutic micro- and nanoparticle engineering, drug-releasing hydrogels, and intracellular drug delivery.
Dr. Yeo has published 25 peer-reviewed papers and 4 book chapters in these fields and received various awards from professional organizations including CRS-3M Drug Delivery Systems Graduate Student/Post-Doc Outstanding Drug Delivery Paper Award (2003) and AAPS Outstanding Graduate Student Research Award in Pharmaceutical Technologies (2004). Dr. Yeo has 2 U.S. Patents and 2 pending patents.
Since her arrival at Purdue in January 2007, she has established an interdisciplinary research program that focuses on engineering therapeutic particles for drug delivery and tissue engineering. As of spring 2008, 12 researchers (1 post-doctoral, 3 graduate, 2 visiting scholars, and 6 undergraduate students) are working in her lab. Dr. Yeo’s research interest spans three areas: (i) Microparticle engineering for pulmonary drug delivery, which is funded by the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation and 3M Drug Delivery Systems; (ii) Developing microcapsules and hydrogels for tissue engineering applications; and (iii) Nanoparticle engineering for tumor-targeted delivery of therapeutic agents. She is actively exploring domestic and international collaboration with physicians, engineers, and industrial researchers.