Physical Chemistry Seminar – Prof. Anjali Sharma, Department of Chemistry

About the event

Speaker: Prof. Anjali Sharma, Washington State University, Department of Chemistry

Title: Novel Dendritic Nanostructures for Cell-Targeted Drug Delivery

Abstract: Poor transport of therapeutics across various physiological barriers limits the development of effective treatments for central nervous system (CNS) disorders, cancer and beyond. The primary clinical challenge in developing therapies for these diseases, is achieving clinically relevant exposure of therapeutics to the site of injury, which is difficult to access due to hard to cross physiological barriers, such as the blood brain barrier or tumor barrier. Another challenge is the targeted and selective delivery of drugs (like a magic bullet) to the diseased cells (such as cancer cells) or sub-cellular locations without impacting healthy cells or tissues in the body to enhance drugs’ efficacy and reduce their systemic side-effects. Dendritic nanoparticles may have various attributes of this ‘magic bullet’ if designed rationally based on disease pathology. Despite the advancement in the field of nanoparticles-based drug delivery systems, only a few nanotherapies have paved their way to the clinic. One of the major hurdles in the clinical development of nanoparticles is the challenge associated with their convenient, reproducible, and scalable synthesis. This talk will provide insights on the ongoing research in the Sharma Lab about the development of disease-directed, rationally designed, clinically translatable, and scalable nanostructures capable of crossing multiple biological barriers for the delivery of therapies at targeted locations. We are applying these nanotherapies to address unmet clinical needs in the areas of cancer, CNS, and ocular disorders.