The lecture is given by Professor Avi Schroeder from the Technion in Haifa. He discusses the use of nanotechnology in personalizing medicine, specifically through the use of bar-coded nanoparticles. The main points of his talk are:
- Drug Delivery Systems: Schroeder emphasizes the need for tailoring drug delivery systems for each specific disease. He mentions the use of lipid-based systems for treating osteoarthritis and the use of small particles for delivering RNA to treat lung cancer.
- Cancer Treatment: Schroeder discusses the use of nanotechnology in determining the best medicine for each cancer patient. He presents an image showing the accumulation of 100-nanometer liposomes with a contrast agent in tumors, demonstrating the potential of nanotechnology in cancer treatment.
- Personalized Medicine: Schroeder discusses the concept of personalized medicine, where a patient’s biopsy is taken and tested against different medicines to determine the most effective treatment. However, he notes that this process can be time-consuming and expensive.
- Barcoded Nanoparticles: Schroeder introduces the concept of barcoded nanoparticles, where each nanoparticle is loaded with a low dose of a specific drug and a unique DNA barcode. These nanoparticles are injected into the patient, accumulate in the tumor, and after a biopsy, the barcodes in the live and dead cells are analyzed to determine which medicine is effective.
- Testing the Concept: Schroeder presents the results of an in vivo test where five different compounds were injected into mice. The results showed that gemcitabine was more effective than cisplatin and doxorubicin in treating the tumor.
- Challenges: Schroeder acknowledges the challenges of this approach, including the different pharmacokinetics of different drugs and the potential for synergy between drugs. He also discusses the need for the nanoparticles to penetrate the cells, which is not easily achieved without a targeting ligand.
- Future Directions: Schroeder concludes by discussing the potential for this approach to provide physicians with more detailed information about the effectiveness of different drugs in different cell types within a tumor. He also mentions the importance of nanotechnology in this process, as small nanoparticles can penetrate the tumor site effectively.
The lecture ends with a Q&A session where Schroeder addresses questions about the physical chemical properties of different drugs, the potential for synergy between drugs, the internalization of nanoparticles by cells, and the possibility of direct intratumoral injection for diagnostic purposes.