Kurniawan Lab

Nanomedicines can be used to deliver drugs to many cancer types. As the field of nanomedicine has progressed, due in part do to increased knowledge of nanoparticle synthesis (better homogeneity is important) and nanoparticle properties (though improved measurement techniques and methodologies), a better understanding of how nanoparticles behave in animals and humans is occurring.

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Nanomedicines are evolving platforms for continually improving drug delivery that is common to many cancer types.

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This lab aim is enabling nanomedicines to evolve to the point of providing increased functionality that improves the delivery of drug molecules to cancer patients. Nanomedicines seek to improve PK properties (enhanced solubility of the drug, tunable circulation times, tunable release of the drug, even at the site of active in the tumor) and alter biodistribution; in order to have low amounts of the drug in non-target tissues and increased drug in tumors for greatly diminished side effect profiles (and most importantly, no new side effects due to the nanoparticle) in patients. These properties can: (i) enable drug combinations formerly inhibited by toxicity limits, (ii) enable new classes of drug delivery (for example, siRNA), and (iii) provide cell-specific targeting within a tumor.