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

本学院早期职业发展（Career）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金刚石贴片装置。纳米金刚石是一种碳基平台材料，几乎可以与任何类型的癌症治疗药物相结合。此外，它们是可扩展的，这意味着它们可以经济地大量合成。设想的设备将具有最小的侵入性尺寸（20-30微米厚）。此外，由于纳米金刚石的高表面积体积比，可以在保持其极薄特性的同时将大量药物装载到器件中。纳米金刚石装置将被设计为多种药物释放，因此，将预先释放一种抗炎药物（地塞米松），然后释放一种强效抗癌药物（阿霉素）。由于顺序药物释放已被证明可以改善癌细胞的治疗，这种策略将同时解决癌细胞的治疗和任何与化疗相关的并发症（如炎症）。癌症的优化治疗是这一代主要的生物学挑战之一。目前的需求要求实施本地化和持续的给药技术。该装置利用纳米金刚石的缓释特性来满足这些要求。为实现研究目标而进行的教育工作将包括开发基于纳米药物输送的教学模块，这些模块正在由研究生为K-12环境开发。此外，整合了制造、材料科学、生物学等领域概念的实验套件将为培养下一代科学/工程领导力提供一个动手的多学科环境。

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.