Research
Therapy and diagnosis - theranostics
Andreas Nyström
To combat and ensure better treatment and diagnostic tools the medical community needs both better chemotherapeutics as well as smart and specific ways of delivering them to the patients. This interdisciplinary project's overall aim is to develop new therapeutic devices for delivery and diagnostic imaging of breast cancer. These nanodevices are termed "theranostics", a combination of therapy and diagnostics in the same device, to treat and image efficacy with one single tool. The primary advantage of theranostics is that they are not limited to therapy or imaging, but allow for combinations, to give coincident diagnostic information plus delivery of therapeutics. Nanoscopic objects provide domains for high capacities of therapeutic loading and sites for labeling, while also having high surface areas for the presentation of targeting ligands. Theranostic devices represent the most recent development within the area of nanomedicine and have high future potential in being the primary tool for personalized medicine. The novelty of this work lies in how we can combine these features in a novel way utilizing properties of the polymer systems that have not been investigated previously.
This work is conducted in collaboration with Prof Eva Malmström at The Royal Institute of Technology (KTH).
Funding is provided via the Swedish Research Council (VR).
References:
- Nyström AM, Wooley KL. (2011) "The importance of chemistry in creating well-defined nanoscopic embedded therapeutics: Devices capable of the dual functions of imaging and therapy". Acc Chem Res, 44:969-978 [Epub 2011 Jun 15]. DOI:10.1021/ar200097k Open access
- Nyström AM, Bartels J, Du W, Wooley KL. (2009). “Perfluorocarbon-loaded Shell Crosslinked Knedel-like Nanoparticles: Lessons regarding polymer mobility and self assembly”. J Polym Sci. Pol Chem. 47:1023-1037. Also featured on the cover of the issue.
- Du W, Nyström AM, Zhang L, Powell KT, Li Y, Cheng C, Wickline SA, Wooley KL. (2008) “Amphiphilic Hyperbranched Fluoropolymers as Nanoscopic 19F-Magnetic Resonance Imaging Agent Assemblies”. Biomacromolecules 9:2826-2833.
- Du W, Xu Z, Nyström AM, Zhang K, Li Y, Leonard J, Wooley KL. (2008). “19F- and Fluorescently-labeled Micelles as Nanoscopic Assemblies for Chemotherapeutic Delivery”, Bioconjug. Chem. 19:2492-2498.