SIRIC BRIO NANOFORM

Thermoresponsive self-assembled photosensitizer-polypeptide conjugates-based nano- formulations for photodynamic therapy (PDT) of cancers

Description: Recent advances in nanomedicine offer diverse opportunities in the development of a wide variety of anticancer therapeutics. Nanoparticle formulations play a significant role in enhancing therapeutic benefits of classical anticancer drugs due to their increased volume, high loading capacity and prolonged vascular residency time. There are however many issues that still need to be addressed such as uncontrolled leaking of the drug cargo from the nanocarrier causing undesired side toxicity and inefficient delivery to the tumour site limiting effectiveness of the treatment.

The proposed project aims to overcome the limitations of nanocarriers by developing smart nanoparticle formulations for the treatment of ovarian cancers from temperature- and photooxidation-responsive genetically engineered polypeptides.

Collaborations: Jan van Hest (TUE, Netherlands), Tomas Torres (Univ. Madrid, Spain)