Lecture 'Meet the PhD Jury: Combining nanocarrier design and self-propulsion for delivery for nucleic acids'
- For whom
- Employees , Students
- When
- 02-12-2024 from 10:00 to 11:00
- Where
- Campus Heymans, Blok A, Fac. of Pharmaceutical Sciences , Ottergemsesteenweg 460, 9000 Gent
- Language
- English
- Organizer
- Laboratory of General Biochemistry and Physical Pharmacy - Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences
- Contact
- kevin.braeckmans@ugent.be
Dr. Juan Fraire from IBEC, Barcelona, will present recent work on enzyme-powered nanomotors for the delivery of therapeutic nucleic acids.
Abstract
In this talk, I will present our recently developed urease-powered platform based on biocompatible and biodegradable poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) NPs. These NPs are used as scaffolds for layer-by-layer (LBL) self-assembly of nucleic acids-loaded PLGA NMs,[7] turning them into a versatile platform that can be tuned in terms of nucleic acids, polymers (directly linked to the complexation and intracellular release of the nucleic acids), and even enzymes (urease, urease/collagenase, etc.).
In that sense, I will discuss the rational design of the nanocarrier, the functionalization process to synthesize the final NM formulation, and the evaluation of the collective behavior in drug delivery applications.