Innovations in Drug Delivery by Supramolecular Design
| Dates: | 7 November 2017 |
|---|
| Times: | 12:00 - 13:00 |
|---|
| What is it: | Seminar |
|---|
| Organiser: | Department of Materials |
|---|
| How much: | Free |
|---|
| Speaker: | Dr. Eric Appel |
|---|
|
Supramolecular biomaterials are dynamically cross-linked polymer networks exhibiting many of the features of traditional biomaterials (e.g., similarity to soft biological tissue and highly tunable mechanical properties),
but can be designed to flow under shear stress (shear-thinning) and rapidly recover when the applied stress is relaxed (self-healing). These properties afford minimally invasive implantation in vivo though direct
injection or catheter delivery to tissues, contributing to a rapid gain in interest in their application for drug delivery and tissue engineering. Herein, we discuss the preparation and application of shear-thinning,
injectable hydrogels driven by non-covalent interactions between modified biopolymers (BPs) and biodegradable nanoparticles (NPs) comprised of poly(ethylene glycol)-block-poly(lactic acid) (PEG-b-PLA).
Owing to the non-covalent interactions between PEG-b-PLA NPs and BPs, the hydrogels flow under applied stress and their mechanical properties recover completely within seconds when the stress is relaxed,
demonstrating the shear-thinning and injectable nature of the material. Moreover, the hierarchical construction of these biphasic hydrogels allows for multiple therapeutic compounds to be entrapped simultaneously
and delivered either independently of one another or simultaneously in a user-defined manner with release profiles that are tunable over several months. These materials open new opportunities to address
fundamental biological questions in immunotherapy as well as to enable novel long-term treatment strategies for a variety of disease targets. Overall, this presentation will demonstrate the facile synthesis of an
injectable hydrogel affording minimally invasive application in vivo and controlled release of therapeutics.
Biography
Eric A. Appel is an Assistant Professor of Materials Science & Engineering and Bioengineering (by courtesy) at Stanford University. Dr. Appel’s research integrates concepts and approaches from supramolecular chemistry,
natural/synthetic materials, and biology with the vision to develop supramolecular biomaterials providing new tools to investigate fundamental biological processes and to engineer advanced healthcare solutions. He received
his BS in Chemistry and MS in Polymer Science from Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo CA, and performed his MS thesis research with Robert D. Miller and James L. Hedrick at the IBM Almaden Research Center in San Jose CA.
He then obtained his PhD in Chemistry at the University of Cambridge working with Prof. Oren A. Scherman. His PhD research focused on the preparation of dynamic and stimuli-responsive supramolecular polymeric materials.
For his PhD work, Eric was the recipient of the Jon Weaver PhD prize from the Royal Society of Chemistry and a Graduate Student Award from the Materials Research Society. Upon graduating from Cambridge, he was awarded
a National Research Service Award from the National Institutes of Health (NIBIB) and a Wellcome Trust Postdoctoral Fellowship to work with Robert Langer at MIT on the development of supramolecular biomaterials for drug
delivery and tissue engineering. Dr Appel currently has over 40 peer-reviewed publications, 11 issued or pending patents, and has been awarded a Margaret A. Cunningham Immune Mechanisms in Cancer Research Award, a
Hellman Faculty Scholarship, a Terman Faculty Fellowship, and a PhRMA Foundation Research Starter Grant.
Speaker
Dr. Eric Appel
Role: Assistant Professor
Organisation: Stanford University
Travel and Contact Information
Find event
D12
MSS Tower
Manchester
