- Project title, project leader and team
Title: Biofunctionalized magnetic nanoparticles with potential applications as theranostic tool
Project leader: Dr. Balan Vera
Team members: Prof. dr. ing Liliana Verestiuc
- Project type, contracting authority, project code and contract number
Contracting authority: Romanian National Authority for Scientific Research, CNCS – UEFISCDI
Project code: PN-II-RU-PD-2012-3-0282
Contract number : UEFISCDI Nr. 50/30.04.2013
- Project implementation
1st May 2013 – 30 thOctober 2015 (30 months)
- Budget
Total Budget: 300000 RON (2013: 125091 lei, 2014: 109822 lei, 2015: 65087 lei)
- Keywords
Magnetic particles, biofunctionalization, theranostic
- Project abstract
The recent investigative trend with respect to cancer has continued down a diagnostic path, but has also turned toward concurrent therapy, giving rise to the distinction of magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) as potential ‘theranostics’ – a way to combine diagnosis, treatment and subsequent imaging for optimizing efficacy and safety of therapeutic regimes. Due to their unique physical properties combined with their abilities to be guided by an external magnetic field and to function at the cellular and molecular level of biological interactions, MNPs have a wide range of applications such as drug delivery systems, magnetic targeting, hyperthermia or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and exhibit great potential to revolutionize current clinical diagnostic and therapeutic techniques.
In this context, the project proposes the obtaining of new cancer theranostic with increased efficiency of chemotherapeutic agent uptake by designing biofunctionalized MNPs which are able to combine diagnostic and therapeutic approaches in a single biomedical platform. A biocompatible polymer will be employed in the formulation of nanoparticles with dual entrapment: therapeutic agents and magnetic material. In the next step MNPs will be functionalized with targeting ligands in order to achive a good cancer cells targeting efficiency.
- Contact
Vera Balan, PhD, Bioeng
“Grigore T. Popa” University of Medicine and Pharmacy,
Faculty of Medical Bioengineering, 9-13 Kogalniceanu Street, 700454, Iasi, Romania
Tel. / Fax: 40-232-213573
E-mail: balanvera@yahoo.com