Nanomedicine for women health: from cancer to obstetrics

Next BIU Engineering Colloquium,
Prof.  Biana Godin, Sunday, 25.06.23 @14:00

BIU Engineering Building 1103, Room 329

====================================

We are delighted to host

Prof. Biana Godin

Weill Cornell Medical College

 Houston Methodist Research Institute

Prof. Godin will give a talk on the subject:

Nanomedicine for women health: 

from cancer to obstetrics

Abstract
Organ microenvironment represents the first frontier and an efficient barrier for delivery of nanotherapeutics to the cells were these should act and should be considered when developing the strategies for drug delivery to an ailment.
As an example, in the primary breast tumors, the lesions are angiogenic and are characterized by developed and permeable vasculature. However, in conditions such as liver metastasis the lesions from the same origin are less vascularized than the surrounding normal tissue, thus, the structure of the organ itself conjures with cancer-specific behavior to impair drug transport and uptake by cancer cells. Thus, strategies to enhance the accumulation of the medicines in the liver lesions, while preventing the wash out should be pursued.
On the other hand, in the field of obstetrics, the main goal is to deliver the required medicine to the mother, while preventing placental transport and associate fetal toxicities. In the case of indomethacin, one of the most frequently used tocolytic agents for prevention of preterm labor, the dose-limiting factors are renal and cardiac fetal toxicities. There is a great need to anchor the therapeutics in the maternal compartment. Based on the specific cues in the maternal and fetal compartments, nanomedicines can be designed to attain this goal.
Cells and elements in the organ microenvironment that play a key role in the process of delivery and retention of therapeutics by nanocarriers, as well as ways to personalize nanotherapy based on the organ’s features using cell culture models and computational modeling will be discussed.