Robert G. Thorne PhD

Robert Thorne, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor in Pharmaceutical Sciences at the UW-Madison School of Pharmacy and also serves as a trainer in the Neuroscience, Cellular & Molecular Pathology, and Clinical Neuroengineering Training Programs at UW-Madison. His research focuses on diffusive and convective transport within the central nervous system and the development, refinement, and optimization of strategies for delivering biotherapeutics such as proteins, oligonucleotides, and viral gene therapy vectors into the brain. He is developing strategies for optimizing brain distribution based on in vivo diffusion data and the application of mathematical models, with a particular focus on immunotherapies and the use of associated virus gene therapy vectors.

Thorne is also testing select strategies for increasing distribution into the brain from the cerebrospinal fluid compartment following intracisternal or intracerebroventricular infusion and from the nasal passages following intranasal administration. The long-term goal is to develop efficient and practical new strategies for delivering biologics into the brain, targeting specific regions for diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease or the whole brain for conditions such as lysosomal storage diseases.