Engineering integrated peptides for small molecule drug delivery

该奖项由阿克伦大学材料研究部的生物材料项目授予，旨在设计和研究新型和集成肽，以在一种材料中携带所有所需的药物传递功能（有效的药物封装，长血液循环和有效靶向），用于靶向递送小分子药物。拟议的工作旨在解决与当前化疗药物输送系统相关的关键挑战。所提出的整合肽将被设计成自组装成稳定的纳米级脂质体样囊泡，用于靶向递送小分子抗癌药物。本项目将研究肽序列和环境刺激如何影响肽基药物载体的稳定性和药物释放。该研究将为长肽的自组装特性和结构-功能相关性提供更好的理解，这对更先进的肽基材料的合理设计用于药物传递和组织工程具有重要意义。拟议的教育和推广活动将激发学生对生物技术的兴趣，并激励他们面对跨学科问题的挑战。作为该项目的一部分，本研究的概念和结果将被纳入本科和研究生选修的“蛋白质工程”课程。将招募和培训本科生，重点关注代表性不足的少数民族和妇女，以开展本项目的研究。由于癌症的持续流行，已经开发了许多用于癌症治疗的药物，化疗仍然是癌症治疗的主流。该项目的目标是通过开发更先进的给药平台来改善化疗的治疗效果。如果成功，这些药物输送平台将有很大的潜力转化为临床应用，造福公众健康。该提案还支持一项全面的教育和推广计划，将涵盖从K-12到研究生教育。作为该项目的一部分，研究人员计划向高中学生和他们的老师介绍尖端和多学科的生物技术。这个研究小组的目标之一是让100%的本科生参与研究。这种方法将大大提高学生在“蛋白质工程”课程的实验室部分的实践研究经验。研究人员计划与工程学院的“增加工程学者的多样性”和“工程中的女性”等项目合作，招募本科生进行该项目的研究。拟议的活动将有助于通过科学和工程教育在俄亥俄州东北部培育高科技环境。

This award by the Biomaterials program in the Division of Materials Research to University of Akron is to design and study novel and integrated peptides to carry all of required drug delivery functions (efficient drug encapsulation, long blood circulation, and effective targeting) in one material for targeted delivery of small molecule drugs. The proposed work is aiming to address key challenges associated with current drug delivery systems in chemotherapy. The proposed integrated peptides will be designed to self-assemble into stable nano-sized liposome-like vesicles for targeted delivery of small molecule anticancer drugs. This project will investigate how the peptide sequence and environmental stimuli will affect the stability and drug release of peptide-based drug carriers. This study will provide a better understanding on the self-assembly properties and structure-function correlations of long peptides, which are essential for the rational design of more advanced peptide-based materials for drug delivery and tissue engineering. The proposed education and outreach activities will stimulate students' interest in biotechnology, and motivate them to face the challenges of interdisciplinary problems. As part of this project,the concepts and results developed from this research will be incorporated into an undergraduate and graduate elective 'Protein Engineering' course. Undergraduates with an emphasis on underrepresented minorities and women will be recruited and trained to conduct research in this project. Due to the sustained prevalence of cancer, numerous drugs have been developed for cancer therapy, and chemotherapy is still prevalent in the treatment of cancers. The goal of this project is to improve the therapeutic outcome of chemotherapy by developing more advanced drug delivery platforms. If successful, these drug delivery platforms will have a great potential to be translated into clinical applications to benefit public health. The proposal also supports a comprehensive education and outreach plan that will cover from K-12 to graduate education. As part of this project, the researcher plans to introduce cutting edge and multidisciplinary bio-technologies to high school students and their teachers. One of the goals of this research team is to involve 100% of the undergraduate students in research. This approach will significantly enhance hands-on research experience for students from the lab components of 'Protein Engineering' course. The investigator plans to work with College of Engineering programs such as 'Increasing Diversity in Engineering Academics' and 'Women in Engineering' to recruit undergraduates to conduct research in this project. The proposed activities will help to cultivate a high-tech environment in northeast Ohio through science and engineering education.