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BIOMEDICAL APPLICATIONS
Biomedical applications of nanotechnology are going to revolutionize most aspects of medicine. It is most likely that over the course of the next twenty years that nanotechnology will play a central role in the diagnostic, treatment and prevention of most diseases and disorders. The interface of biology, chemistry, physics and engineering that is central to nanotechnology will find widespread applications in medicine.
CBIN will have as one of its thrust areas the development of protein cage and protein architectures for biomedical applications. Conceptually, virus (devoid of their nucleic acids) and other protein cages (such as heat shock protein cages and ferritin protein cages) can be viewed as molecular “lego” sets. The cages are precise assemblies of a limited number of protein subunits. By combining both chemical and genetic alteration of the subunits, one can simultaneously direct architectures of the final assembled protein cage and impart novel function to different surfaces of the cage. For example, CBIN is actively engaged in the development of protein cages that can be chemically and genetically altered to selectively entrap therapeutic agents that can be released by the controlled gating of the protein cage. Simultaneously, metals can be bound at the interface between subunits and cell targeting ligands can place on the exterior surface of protein cage in order to address the cage to a particular cell type of interest. The goal of this research is to develop robust systems that combines non-invasive advanced imaging, highly selective cell targeting, and drug delivery and release into the same protein cage.
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