CAREER: Scalable Fabrication of Nanodiamond Patch Platforms for Sustained Drug Release

该学院早期职业发展(CAEREAR)项目的研究目标是利用纳米制造策略开发一种用于癌症药物输送的纳米钻石镶嵌贴片装置。纳米钻石是碳基平台材料，几乎可以与任何类型的癌症治疗药物联系在一起。此外，它们是可扩展的，这意味着它们可以经济地大量合成。设想的设备将具有微创尺寸(20-30微米厚)。此外，由于纳米钻石的表面积与体积比很高，因此可以在保持其极薄性能的同时将大量药物加载到该装置中。这种纳米钻石装置将被设计用于多种药物的释放，因此将预先释放一种抗炎药物(地塞米松)，随后将释放一种有效的抗癌药物(多柔比星)。由于顺序药物释放已被证明可以改善癌细胞的治疗，这一战略将同时解决癌细胞的治疗和与化疗相关的任何并发症(例如炎症)。癌症的优化治疗是这一代人面临的主要生物学挑战之一。当前的需要要求实施本地化和可持续的药物输送技术。所提出的装置利用了纳米钻石的缓慢药物释放特性，可以满足这些要求。旨在实现研究目标的教育努力将包括开发研究生正在为K-12环境开发的基于纳米药物输送的教学模块。此外，综合了制造、材料科学、生物学等领域的概念的实验工具包将提供一个动手的、多学科的环境，以培养下一代科学/工程领导力。

The research objective of this Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) project is to utilize nanomanufacturing strategies to develop a nanodiamond-embedded patch device for cancer drug delivery. Nanodiamonds are carbon-based platform materials that can be linked with nearly any type of drug for cancer treatment. Furthermore, they are scalable, meaning they can be economically synthesized in large quantities. The envisioned device will possess minimally-invasive dimensions (20-30 microns thick). Furthermore, due to the high surface area-to-volume ratio of the nanodiamonds, a large amount of drug can be loaded into the device while maintaining its extremely thin properties. The nanodiamond device will be engineered for multi-drug release, and as such, will pre-deliver an anti-inflammatory drug (Dexamethasone) which will be followed by the release of a potent cancer drug (Doxorubicin). As sequential drug release has been shown to improve cancer cell treatment, this strategy will simultaneously address the treatment of cancer cells and any complications that (e.g. inflammation) are associated with chemotherapy. The optimized treatment of cancer represents one of the major biological challenges of this generation. Current needs require the implementation of localized and sustained drug delivery technologies. The proposed device harnesses the slow drug release properties of the nanodiamonds which can meet these requirements. Educational efforts directed towards the realization of the research objectives will include the development of nano-drug delivery based teaching modules that are being developed by graduate students for the K-12 environment. Furthermore, experimental kits that integrate concepts from manufacturing, materials science, biology, among other domains will provide a hands-on, multidisciplinary environment to train the next generation of science/engineering leadership.