Functionalization of starch nanoparticles with DNA

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Cancer remains to be one of the leading diseases to cause human death. While many drugs have been developed to effectively kill cancer cells, these drugs can also attack healthy tissues. Therefore, a targeted drug delivery system promises to offer improved cancer therapy. In the past two decades, the development of nanotechnology has demonstrated that it is possible to engineer various nanoparticles for drug containment and targeted delivery. However, many of these nanoparticles are made of inorganic materials and have potential toxic effects. So far, only several lipid-based drug delivery systems have been approved for clinical use. Starch is a natural and biocompatible material. Compared to lipid, starch is more cost effective and more stable. EcoSynthetix is an Ontario-based company that produces starch-based nanoparticles and materials for various applications. Because of its biocompatibility, starch nanoparticles are a promising candidate for targeted drug delivery applications. The first step towards this goal is to solve the problem of covalent modification of starch with a cancer targeting ligand. In this proposed work, the Liu lab at the University of Waterloo will work with EcoSynthetix to solve this problem by linking DNA molecules to starch nanoparticles and such DNAs can specifically bind to cancer cells. The successful completion of this project will open up important new applications and generate related intellectual properties that can benefit the future growth of EcoSynthetix. Being a large country rooted in agriculture, developing new technologies related to materials such as starch can also maintain the leader position of Canada in related areas.