Pieter Cullis

Dr. Pieter Rutter Cullis is a Canadian physicist and biochemist based in Vancouver, British Columbia. He is a Professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the University of British Columbia.

He is known for his contributions to the field of lipid nanoparticles (LNP).¹⁾ He has founded several biotechnology companies in this area including Acuitas Therapeutics, Inex Pharmaceuticals, Integrated Nanotherapeutics and Precision Nanosystems.^{2) 3)}

He is the founding Director of the Centre for Drug Research and Development and founding Scientific Director and CEO of the NanoMedicines Innovation Network.

Cullis was among the scientists experimenting with liposomes in the early 1980s, fascinated by their properties in many aspects of human biology.⁴⁾

From 1985 to 2000, Dr. Cullis was Director and Chairman of Lipex Biomembranes.⁵⁾

From 1987 to 1991, Dr. Cullis was President and Director of the Canadian Liposome Company (CLC), a subsidiary of the Liposome Company based in Princeton, New Jersey.⁶⁾

Cullis discovered he could load cancer drugs into liposomes, inspiring him and several colleagues to form Inex Pharmaceuticals in 1992.⁷⁾

To improve prospects of successfully advancing gene therapy techniques, Cullis developed and patented a new form of lipid nanoparticle designed to deliver genetic material to host cells.⁸⁾ From 1994 onward, a series of patents were filed describing the technology Cullis and his colleagues created, including the addition of a chemical called polyethylene glycol (PEG) to further increase the LNP's ability to pass into cells.^{9) 10) 11) 12)}

In 2001, Inex had made deals to develop a product with GlaxoSmithKline.¹³⁾ By 2004, Inex was in the research stage of preparing their own targeted “cancer vaccine” program. However, after the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) declined to approve their chemotherapy products, Cullis quit, the company downsized and rebranded to Tekmira Pharmaceuticals.^{14) 15)}

Starting in 2005, Cullis became Director and Chairman of Northern Lipids, since renamed Evonik Vancouver Laboratories.¹⁶⁾

In February 2009, Cullis and longtime collaborators Thomas Madden and Michael Hope founded AlCana Therapeutics, which was later renamed Acuitas Therapeutics.¹⁷⁾

He also co-founded Precision NanoSystems with James Talor and Euen Ramsay in 2010.^{18) 19)}

Cullis was invited to speak on March 11, 2023 at an event titled “How UBC Enabled the COVID-19 mRNA Vaccines” at the Vancouver Institute.²⁰⁾

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