Texas A&M University is one of five collaborating institutions in an $18 million National Institutes of Health-funded research program to develop nanotechnology-based therapies and diagnostics tools for treating heart and lung diseases.
The award, “Integrated Nanosystems for Diagnosis and Therapy,” is one of four Programs of Excellence in Nanotechnology (PEN) funded nationwide through the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. It will support five years of nanoparticle-focused research led by co-principal investigators Karen L. Wooley of Texas A&M and Michael J. Welch of Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis in conjunction with colleagues at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and the University of California, Santa Barbara and Berkeley.
Nanoparticles — tiny particles no more than 1 to 100 billionths of a meter in size — can be custom-engineered by scientists to deliver imaging agents or therapies, such as drugs, chemotherapies or genetic material, to specific targets, including tumors, particular cell types or sites of inflammation.
“Nanoparticles have several advantages over the small molecules typically used in imaging and therapeutics,” says Welch, professor of radiology and developmental biology at Washington University. “Not only can we load them with agents that deliver therapies to specific targets, we can include imaging agents that help us track both the nanoparticles and the therapeutic agent, and change the surface of the particles to customize the amount of time they spend in the body.”
The new initiative includes four primary research projects. Wooley, who holds the W.T. Doherty-Welch Chair in Chemistry at Texas A&M and is considered one of the top chemists worldwide in the field of materials and polymer chemistry, will lead one that focuses on the design of advanced nanomaterials. In addition, she will be involved in two others that will develop nanomaterials to address lung-related infectious diseases and acute lung injury — one of which also involves internationally renowned Texas A&M biochemist James C. Sacchettini, holder of the Wolfe-Welch Chair in Science.
“The work that will be conducted through this Program of Excellence in Nanotechnology is expected to lead to remarkable advances in well-defined, multi-functional systems that will dramatically alter the future of medical practice by providing non-invasive detection, diagnosis and treatment of lung and cardiovascular diseases with greater degrees of sensitivity and selectivity,” Wooley says. “We have established a diverse team of physical scientists, biologists, radiologists and medical practitioners to address the various hurdles that will be encountered in the design of integrated nanosystems and their translation to effective devices. The state of Texas is playing a key role through its investigators at Texas A&M University and the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center.”