Nano/bio Integrations for Biosensing and Drug Delivery

Zeinldin, Reema. (2010) Nano/bio Integrations for Biosensing and Drug Delivery. In: IGERT Seminar Series, 2010 - 2011, University of Massachusetts Amherst. (Unpublished)

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Abstract

I would like to share my research interests focusing on nano/bio integrations for biosensing and drug delivery. For biosensing, I employ systems made of lipid vesicles that spontaneously fuse and assemble into a lipid bilayer on spherical silica. The supported lipid bilayers (SLBs) maintain characteristics of biological membranes, and are thus considered to be biomembrane mimetic systems that are stable because of the underlying substrate. I will present examples of my use of biomimetic silica microspheres consisting of SLBs on solid or porous silica microspheres for biosensing of membrane-active agents. For drug delivery, I utilize carbon nanotubes (CNTs) as one of the new emerging drug delivery nanocarriers that efficiently transport a variety of adsorbed or chemically conjugated molecules inside cells. My studies demonstrate the important role of polyethylene glycol (PEG).integrity in promoting specific targeted uptake of CNTs. PEGylation of CNTs blocks nonspecific protein binding and nonspecific uptake by cells whereas without PEGylation, CNTs will transport any cargo into the cells, although presence of a targeting moiety further enhances this transport even in the absence of PEG. Combining intact PEGylation of CNTs with a specific ligand to a tumor cell-surface marker leads to specific recognition and targeting to tumor cells while eliminating or minimizing nonspecific uptake by non-cancerous cells which do not express the.targeted cancer cell marker. This is important in specifically targeting cancer cells with drugs while saving non-cancerous cells’ exposure to cytotoxic agents.

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