 | Nanotechnology for Medical Imaging and Therapy
Description
Nanotechnology is expected to have a revolutionary impact on medicine. A variety of medical processes occur at nanometer length scales. Among the approaches for exploiting developments in nanotechnology in medicine, nanoparticles offer some unique advantages as sensing, delivery, and image enhancement agents. Several varieties of nanoparticles are available including, polymeric nanoparticles, metal nanoparticles, liposomes, micelles, quantum dots, dendrimers, magnetic nanoparticles, and nanoassemblies. All of these nanoparticles can play a major role in medicine, and especially in diagnosis and therapy of cancer, cardiovascular diseases, and infectious diseases. To further the application of nanoparticles in disease diagnosis and therapy, it is important that the systems are stable, capable of being functionalized, biocompatible, and directed to specific target sites in the body after systemic administration.
This tutorial will cover applications of nanotechnology for early diagnosis and therapy of diseases. Specifically, the role of various nanotechnology platforms and surface functionalization for site-specific delivery will be emphasized.
What you will learn
- The role of nanotechnology is early diagnosis and therapy of diseases.
- Development of nanotechnology platforms for biomedical applications — emphasis will be placed on biocompatible systems that can be modified for efficient targeting to disease sites in vivo.
- Relevant examples of nanotechnology applications in medical diagnosis and therapy.
Course instructor
Mansoor Amiji, PhD is an Associate Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences in the School of Pharmacy, Bouve College of Health Sciences and Associate Director of the Nanomedicine Consortium, Northeastern University in Boston, MA.
Dr. Amiji received his undergraduate degree in pharmacy from Northeastern University in 1988 and his PhD in pharmaceutics/biomaterial science from Purdue University in 1992. His areas of specialization include polymeric biomaterials, drug delivery systems, and nanomedical technologies.
Dr. Amiji’s research interests include synthesis of novel polymeric materials for medical and pharmaceutical applications; surface modification of cationic polymers by the complexation-interpenetration method to develop biocompatible materials; preparation and characterization of polymeric membranes and microcapsules with controlled permeability properties for medical and pharmaceutical applications; target-specific drug and vaccine delivery systems for gastrointestinal tract infections; localized delivery of cytotoxic and antiangiogenic drugs for solid tumors in novel biodegradable polymeric nanoparticles intracellular delivery systems for drugs and genes using target-specific, long-circulating, biodegradable polymeric nanoparticles; gold and iron-gold core-shell nanoparticles for biosensing, imaging and delivery applications. His research has received funding from the National Institutes of Health, local biotechnology and medical device industries, and private foundations.
Dr. Amiji has extensively published research articles, book chapters, and conference proceedings. He has also published two books - Applied Physical Pharmacy (McGraw-Hill, 2003) and Polymeric Gene Delivery Systems: Principles and Applications (CRC Press, 2004). Dr. Amiji has received a number of awards and accolades including the third prize of Eurand Award for Outstanding Research in Oral Drug Delivery in 2003.
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