CEMS Faculty

Targeted Drug Delivery - Currently, the main problems associated with systemic drug administration are the necessity of a large drug dose to achieve high local concentration, non-specific toxicity and other adverse side-effects due to high drug doses, even biodistribution throughout the body and lack of specific affinity for the pathological site. Targeted drug delivery can bring a solution to all these problems. The goal of our biomimetic approach is to engineer vesicles that utilize peptide-amphiphiles to impart targeting functionality, and polyethylene glycol molecules to create a steric barrier to nonspecific interactions and subsequent premature clearance from the blood stream. Our design is based on the idea that a peptide-amphiphile will recognize and specifically bind to the receptor of choice, thus localizing only at sites of inflammation or infection. These studies will provide an insight into the mechanisms by which surface molecules, such as peptide-amphiphiles, modulate vesicle behavior, and will contribute significantly to the rational design and engineering of drug delivery systems with improved targeting functionality and circulation lifetimes.

Biomimetic Approaches to Biomaterials Design - Cell-matrix adhesion mediated by integrins regulates several aspects of cell behavior, including growth, differentiation, adhesion and motility, and is critical to cellular responses on biomaterial surfaces. The alpha(5)beta(1) integrin has been shown to have an impact on dynamic processes such as mediating adenovirus infection, accelerating wound healing, providing a protection mechanism against Alzheimer’s disease, and a promising target for breast, colon, prostate, and rectal cancer. Thus, many therapeutic strategies acquire the use of fibronectin-mimetic peptides in an attempt to target alpha(5)beta(1) and provide treatment. However, the therapeutic use of current peptides has been limited since they cannot accurately mimic fibronectin’s affinity for the integrin. Our goal is to design of a fibronectin-mimetic peptide-amphiphile that interacts specifically with alpha(5)beta(1) integrins. Cell adhesion, blocking assays, confocal microscopy, and atomic force microscopy (AFM) are used to evaluate the response of the integrin on our biomimetic interfaces. This is a promising approach where biomimetic peptides are used effectively as building blocks for biomaterials functionalization.