Boston University Cross-Disciplinary Training in Nanotechnology for Cancer

描述(由申请者提供)：癌症是人类的祸害，2008年美国有55万人死于癌症，每四人中就有一人死于癌症。今年的新诊断病例将超过140万例，随着人口老龄化，预测只会增加。从全球卫生角度来看，绝大多数癌症死亡发生在低收入和中等收入国家，这些国家的发病率和死亡率正在上升，这增加了我们改善预防和治疗的紧迫性。纳米技术在癌症中的前景在于能够设计出可定制的纳米结构，这种结构可以加载一个或多个有效载荷，如化疗药物、靶向单元、成像和诊断试剂。纳米技术为癌症带来了巨大的希望，有可能解决目前癌症预防、诊断和治疗面临的许多难题。其中包括通过识别罕见的循环肿瘤细胞，将纳米技术应用于早期检测/癌症预防。蛋白质组学尤其是作为一种检测核基质蛋白的工具和筛选早期肿瘤的新的生物标志物而出现。纳米线和纳米悬臂阵列是正在开发的用于从生物液中早期检测癌前病变和恶性病变的主要方法之一。纳米生物技术已被应用于改善药物输送和克服癌症中的一些药物输送问题。通过纳米粒子靶向肿瘤组织来增强肿瘤组织对辐射的敏感性，从而提高放射治疗的活性和特异性是目前正在进行的临床试验中的一种方法。纳米粒子也被用于癌症的基因治疗。通过纳米颗粒介导的基因传递到肿瘤新生血管，可以促进肿瘤环境的靶向，而不是肿瘤本身。随着纳米技术在治疗方面的潜在进步，肿瘤成像方面的重大改进将需要它们的有效应用。新技术能够灵敏地检测残留疾病，并对实体肿瘤患者中这些微小残留癌细胞进行分子表征，这将是确定疗程长度的关键，从而节省患者潜在的毒性和费用。在拟议的培训中心提案中，我们努力做到这一点，将我们Charles River校区的物理和生物科学的教职员工和学生与我们医学院的医学研究人员和临床医生直接联系起来。我们的计划创建了校园之间的联系机制，通过共同指导、交叉受精的研究项目以及跨学科课程和研讨会，轻松克服一英里沥青的简单物理障碍，并带领参与者在克服更具挑战性的科学、文化和学科障碍的道路上前进。 与公共健康相关：纳米技术在癌症中的前景在于能够设计出可定制的纳米结构，这种结构可以装载一个或多个有效载荷，如化疗药物、靶向单位、成像和诊断试剂。因此，纳米技术为癌症带来了巨大的希望，有可能解决目前癌症预防、诊断和治疗面临的许多最困难的问题。波士顿大学正在建立一个跨学科的培训计划，以培训下一代科学家、工程师和研究人员来实现这一承诺。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Cancer is a scourge on the face of humanity, responsible for over 550,000 deaths in 2008 in the US, one out of every four. New diagnoses this year will top 1.4 million, with projections only growing as the population ages. From a global health perspective, the vast majority of cancer deaths occur in low and middle income countries, and the incidence and death rate is rising in these countries, adding to our urgency to improve prevention and treatment. The promise of nanotechnology in cancer lies in the ability to engineer customizable nanoscale constructs that can be loaded with one or more payloads such as chemotherapeutics, targeting units, imaging and diagnostic agents. Nanotechnology holds great promise for cancer, with the potential to address many difficult problems now facing cancer prevention, diagnosis, and therapy. These include the application of nanotechnology to early detection/cancer prevention, through identification of rare circulating tumor cells. Proteomics in particular is emerging as a tool for detection of nuclear matrix proteins and new biomarkers for screening of early tumors stage. Nanowires and nanocantilever arrays are among the leading approaches under development for the early detection of precancerous and malignant lesions from biological fluids. Nanobiotechnologies have been applied to improve drug delivery and to overcome some of the problems of drug delivery in cancer. Enhancing the activity and specificity of radiation therapy by sensitization of tumor tissues to radiation through nanoparticle targeting of tumor tissue is an approach currently in clinical testing. Nanoparticles are also being used for gene therapy for cancer. Targeting of the tumor environment, rather than the tumor itself, could be facilitated by nanoparticle-mediated gene delivery to tumor neovasculature. With potential advances in therapy garnered through nanotechnology, significant improvements in tumor imaging will be required for their effective application. New technology allowing sensitive detection of residual disease, and molecular characterization of these minimal residual cancer cells in patients with solid tumors, will be critical in determining the length of a course of treatment, saving the patient potential toxicity and expense. In the proposed training center proposal, we endeavor to do just that, directly couple faculty and students from physical and biological sciences on our Charles River Campus with the medical researchers and clinicians on our Medical Campus. Our program creates mechanisms for connections between the campuses with co-mentoring, cross-fertilized research projects, and interdisciplinary courses and workshops, easily overcoming the simple physical barrier of a mile of asphalt, and leading participants on the way to surmount the more challenging scientific cultural and disciplinary barriers. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: The promise of nanotechnology in cancer lies in the ability to engineer customizable nanoscale constructs that can be loaded with one or more payloads such as chemotherapeutics, targeting units, imaging and diagnostic agents. Nanotechnology thus holds great promise for cancer, with the potential to address many of the most difficult problems now facing cancer prevention, diagnosis, and therapy. Boston University is building a cross-disciplinary training program to train the next generation of scientists, engineers and researchers to fulfill this promise.