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NanoVic Award for Targeted Drug Delivery PhD Research
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http://uninews.unimelb.edu.au/articleid_3576.html
Research into nanoscale polymer capsules that can lock on to cancer cells and deliver a targeted drug dose has won a University of Melbourne PhD student a Nanotechnology Victoria Ltd (NanoVic) Postgraduate Award.
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Christina Cortez |
Targeted drug delivery has the potential to greatly improve the therapeutic
effect of existing drugs by delivering high doses of a drug to the specific
sites where it is required.
The NanoVic award, to Ms Christina Cortez in the University’s Centre for Nano-science
and Nanotechnology (CNST), is worth $4000 including a day’s access to
commercialisation experts to discuss plans to implement research outcomes. Ms
Cortez is investigating the ‘biofunctionalisation’ of drug-loadable polymer
particles and capsules coated with specific monoclonal antibodies to target
colorectal cancer cells. Her work is supervised by nanotechnology pioneer and
Australian Research Council Federation Fellow Professor Frank Caruso, Director
of the CNST, which is based in the University’s Department of Chemical and
Biomolecular Engineering.
Ms Cortez’s project builds on a multidisciplinary body of nanobiotechnology
research conducted in collaboration with researchers at the Ludwig Institute for
Cancer Research in Parkville. She says various nano- and microparticle-based
delivery systems are being investigated, small size and drug-loading capability
being among key criteria. “The particles we work with at the CNST are prepared
using a layer-by-layer (LbL) approach, where a polymer film of nano-sized
thickness is assembled by depositing alternatively charged species on a particle
template or core. The core can then be decomposed to form hollow capsules with
high loading capabilities,” she says. Professor Caruso is a pioneer of the LbL
method of capsule preparation. Ms Cortez’s findings indicate that LbL
nanocapsules biofunctionalised with a monoclonal antibody called huA33 mAb have
the potential to target colorectal cancer cells with high specificity,
considerably reducing unwanted drug toxicity effects on other tissues or cells.
Her work was recently accepted for publication by the high ranking journal
Advanced Materials.
The next step of her project will see Ms Cortez undertake work in Strasbourg,
France, on a collaborative research visit funded by the Australian Research
Council Nanotechnology Network and the University through the Department of
Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and the Particulate Fluids Processing
Centre. While in Strasbourg, Ms Cortez will examine the use of biocompatible and
biodegradable polymers for preparing capsules.
Ms Cortez’s award was one of three made this year to doctoral candidates at
Victorian universities and the second made to a CNST PhD student – Ms Alexandra
Angelatos having won a NanoVic award last year for work relating to the release
of therapeutics from microcapsules using electromagnetic radiation.
