COLL 103 |
| Nanoscopic particulate materials present great promise for use as carriers and reporters for biomedical applications, for example as imaging contrast agents, drug delivery vessels, scavengers of toxins, etc. One of the immediate challenges is the development of synthetic methodologies that allow for the preparation of well defined nanostructures having controlled and readily modified surface chemistry to direct their in vivo targeting and internal structure to provide for packaging of labels, pharmaceutically-active agents, etc. We have focused over the past several years on shell crosslinked (SCK) polymer micelles, which are robust core-shell nanoparticles that allow for tuning of the internal core and external shell compositions and properties. In this presentation, several synthetic routes for the introduction of biologically-active surface moieties will be described, and characterization of the materials will be detailed, from in vitro model studies to in vivo biodistributions and tissue targeting. Moreover, the ability to extend the structural design to nanocage-like vessels, which are SCKs having undergone excavation of the core polymer chain segments will be demonstrated. The excavation process is accomplished by physical extraction of the non-crosslinked core chain segments to afford a pseudo-inverted SCK, or by chemical degradation of the core polymer chains. The nanocages are designed as synthetic analogs of viral capsids, and lining of the internal surface of the cage with functionalities to promote guest packaging will also be discussed. |
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Advances in Nanomedicine
2:00 PM-5:30 PM, Sunday, 10 September 2006 Sir Francis Drake -- Monterey/Cypress Rooms, Oral
Division of Colloid & Surface Chemistry |