Biophysical characterisation of self-assembling nanoparticles

该研究项目的重点是设计脂质纳米盘(Lipodisqs)，将治疗性多肽和寡核苷酸输送到细胞和细胞内靶点，是EPSRC的优先事项，是医疗保健产品组合中的一项优先事项。脂质纳米盘在体外和体内试验中都显示出作为药物携带分子的初步潜力，因为它们能够增加更亲脂(从而疏水)药物分子的溶解度。它们作为可溶的脂膜模拟物的能力不仅有助于药物的载药性质，而且可以用于研究膜蛋白在天然构象和环境中的生物物理和结构特征。

The research project focuses on engineering lipid nanodiscs (Lipodisqs) to deliver therapeutic peptides and oligonucleotides to cellular and intracellular targets, and is an EPSRC Priority Are in the Healthcare portfolio. Lipid nanodiscs have shown preliminary potential as drug carrying molecules in both in vitro and in vivo assays, as they are able to increase solubility of more lipophilic (and therefore hydrophobic) drug molecules. Their ability to act as a soluble lipid membrane mimic is useful for not only the drug carrying properties for therapeutics, but also could be used to study the biophysical and structural characteristics of membrane proteins in their native conformation and environment.