| Description |
Nanomedicines gain advantage in biomedical applications if they are tailored to be degradable in response to certain external stimuli. Such stimulus may be enzymatic removal of protecting groups, a pH change, light or more recently, the presence of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in cancer environment. In this project, imbalances of the cellular microenvironment (pH changes, ROS production) will be explored for the synthesis of stimuli-responsive polymers and block copolymers. Inspired by the ease and effectiveness of the self-assembly of amphiphilic block copolymers in solution, several polymer nanomedicines (PNM) i.e., polymer micelles, polymer nanoparticles and polymersomes will be developed. They will show tunable stimuli-induced degradation in the presence of physiologically relevant changes in pH, temperature or ROS concentrations. The nanospecies will be prepared by microfluidic nanoprecipitation. This technique allows the production of uniform particles with controllable size, shape and surface chemistry in a reproducible and scalable manner. The PMN self-assemblies produced will be characterized using standard scattering techniques (DSL/SLS/ELS, SAXS and SANS) and imaged by microscopy (SEM, TEM and Cryo-TEM). The effectiveness of the PMN will be evaluated in in vitro and in in vivo models. |
