[UCI-Calit2] Nanomedicine and Delivery of Therapeutics

Anna Lynn Spitzer aspitzer at calit2.uci.edu
Mon Mar 19 08:19:20 PDT 2007


Title:                           Tunable Nanomedicine for Controlled and
Targeted Delivery of Therapeutics

 

Speaker:                    Young Jik Kwon, M. Frank and Margaret
Domiter Rudy Assistant Professor

Department of Biomedical Engineering, Case Western Reserve University

 

Time:                          10 a.m.

 

Date:                           Tuesday, March 20, 2007

 

Location:                    Calit2 Building, Room 3008

 

Abstract:                     With the accumulation of information on
molecular mechanisms of diseases, significant efforts have been invested
in finding effective and reliable methods of disease prevention and
treatment. Although many new therapeutics, ranging from small synthetic
molecules to genetic materials, have been identified and presented some
promise, fighting many fatal diseases such as cancer has not been very
successful. Major obstacles in achieving desired therapeutic effects
include 1) unspecific accumulation of harmful drugs in non-pathological
locations, 2) lack of specific uptake by target cells, and 3)
uncontrolled and inefficient intracellular processes of the
therapeutics. In this talk, various acid-degradable, polymeric
nano-scale drug carriers (i.e., nanomedicine) specifically designed to
meet these requirements will be presented with their improved
therapeutic effects confirmed by ex vivo and in vivo studies.
Acid-degradable polymeric particles encapsulating antigen proteins are
specifically taken up by immune cells and result in directed and boosted
cellular responses against cancer. Targeted in vivo delivery of the
carriers to a specific type of immune cells will also be shown. It will
be demonstrated that key features of nanoparticles can easily be
customized due to high flexibility of a monomer-to-polymer approach to
nanoparticle fabrication. Feasibility of accomplishing combinative and
synergistic gene therapy via controlled delivery of siRNA and plasmid
DNA to their intracellular targets by modulating properties of
acid-degradable cationic polymers will be given. Throughout the talk,
novel paradigms will be delineated for controlled and targeted delivery
of therapeutics using interdisciplinary bionanotechnology that
encompasses engineering, chemistry and biology to medicine.  

 

Bio:                             Kwon received his doctorate in chemical
engineering from the University of Southern California in 2003. After
postdoctoral research in chemistry at UC Berkeley, he joined the
Department of Biomedical Engineering at Case Western Reserve University
as an assistant professor in 2005. Currently, he is the M. Frank and
Margaret Domiter Rudy chair of cancer research in biomedical engineering
and a member of the Case Comprehensive Cancer Center, a partnership
organization of Case School of Medicine, University Hospitals of
Cleveland (UHC), and the Cleveland Clinic. His research interests
include developing nano-scale drug/gene carriers for targeted therapy of
cancer and genetic diseases, combined diagnosis/therapy using molecular
imaging and nanotechnology, bioreactor design for tissue and stem cell
engineering, and mathematical modeling of therapeutics transport.

 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: https://maillists.uci.edu/mailman/private/uci-calit2/attachments/20070319/c76a4d2f/attachment.html


More information about the UCI-Calit2 mailing list