Getting cancer drugs to the correct locations is one of the biggest challenges in treating solid tumors, especially brain cancer. The brain is protected by the blood-brain barrier, which blocks more than 98 percent of drugs from reaching the tissue.
To address this obstacle, Natalie Artzi, PhD, a principal investigator in the Division of Bioengineering in Medicine, and her team are focused on engineering biomaterials that can enhance the effectiveness of drug delivery. They have produced a wide library of therapeutic nanoparticles, ranging from polymeric to metallic to lipid-based platforms. Her team also engineers materials to be tissue responsive, shifting from the concept of “one material fits all” to understanding and adapting material design to match disease pathology. Ultimately, her team is designing delivery mechanisms that can release on demand and more effectively to the right locations.
