Biomedical Engineering Professor Konstantin (Kostia) Sokolov has received a new National Institutes of Health grant on “Biodegradable Plasmonic Nanoparticles for Cancer Imaging and Therapy”. The work is funded by the National Cancer Institute and addresses important new aspects of the use of biodegradable nanoparticles in cancer imaging.
Work at the university and elsewhere has shown that nanotechnology can provide unique solutions to revolutionize diagnosis and treatment of many devastating diseases such as cancer. Sokolov and his collaborator Biomedical Engineering Professor. Stas Emelianov are developing plasmonic (gold or silver) nanoparticles for molecularly specific imaging, therapy and combined imaging/therapy. But a major roadblock in translation of these inorganic nanoparticles to clinical practice for systemic targeting of cancer cells is their non-biodegradable nature.
In this research program Sokolov and Emelianov will create a new class of biodegradable gold nanoparticles with plasmon resonances in the near infrared region. The nanoparticles will degrade to easily clearable components in the body and, therefore, will provide a crucial missing link between the enormous potential of metal nanoparticles for cancer imaging and therapy and translation into clinical practice.
The $1.64 million 5-year NIH grant will be used to cover the salaries and laboratory expenses of graduate students and postdoctoral fellows who will develop hybrid polymer/inorganic nanomaterial that combine the imaging contrast and therapeutic capabilities afforded by the near infrared-active nanoparticles with the biodegradability of a polymer stabilizer. These nanoparticles will simultaneously provide strong optical cross-sections required for imaging and therapy, prolonged blood residence time required for effective systemic delivery, and degradation to small sizes required for effective clearance from the body. Whereas these hybrid nanoparticles have widespread potential in imaging/therapy, the group’s initial efforts will be focused on biodegradable plasmonic nanoparticles with intense NIR absorbance for photo-acoustic imaging of cancerous cells in vivo.
This is the sixth major grant on cancer research received by the Biomedical Engineering Department over the past 18 months. It indicates the strong research position of the department in this very important area of biomedical research.
