Recent progress on drug delivery using nanocrystals

About

Learning Objectives

• Expand your knowledge on new drug nanocrystals applications.
• List advantages of nanocrystals over conventional lipid and polymer nanoparticles.
• Increase your understanding on advanced applications of drug nanocrystals.
• Demonstrate how NCs can accumulate in target cells and tissues, overcoming key disadvantages of conventional nanoparticles.
   

Nanocrystals (NCs) have entirely changed the panorama of hydrophobic drug delivery, showing improved biopharmaceutical performance through multiple administrations routes. While conventional polymers and lipid nanoparticles have limited drug loading capacity (typically 5-15%), NCs, nanoparticles made of pure drug, present a substantial potential as highly loaded nanovectors. Dr Paredes' group has done pioneering work in the field, covalently attaching functional coronas to the NCs surface. This seminar will discuss examples of clinical applications of NCs for targeted and controlled drug delivery from a multidisciplinary perspective, i.e., formulation, chemical attachment of functional moieties, material characterisation, and drug delivery, and in vitro and in vivo testing. The ability to selectively target malignant cells with targeted NCs while sparing healthy tissue can lead to a paradigm shift in oncological therapies. Moreover, it will describe how NCs decorated with various polymerised coatings have shown ability to cross the mucus barrier in the nasal cavity, and potential to reach central nervous system.

Bio

Dr Alejandro J. Paredes is a Pharmacist by training (2011) and holds a PhD (2016), both degrees from the National University of Córdoba, Argentina. Dr Paredes is a senior lecturer at the School of Pharmacy at Queen’s University Belfast, UK, where he leads a group focused on controlled and targeted drug delivery using nanocrystals. Alejandro is a named inventor in 2 patents and has authored >75 peer-reviewed articles. Dr Paredes has obtained prestigious grants (>£3.7m) from the EPSRC, the Academy of Medical Sciences, the Royal Society, NI Department for Economy, and Applied Microbiology International. Dr Paredes obtained the Emerging Scientist Award 2024 from the APS and is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (UK) and CICOPS (Italy). Alejandro is an active member of various scientific societies, and an editorial board member of Materials Today Bio, AAPS PharmSciTech and Drug Delivery and Translational Research.

Host PI. María José Alonso. CiMUS.

If you want to attend virtually, register in advance for this meeting:

https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZMsf-CgqTwoGNU11jgXbI_19mNiOTYMGU4L 

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

Certificates of attendance will be provided upon request to cimus.xestion [at] usc.es (cimus[dot]xestion[at]usc[dot]es). Please do not forget to enter your name and surname on the printout. If you fail to do so, we will not be responsible for changing anyone's record.