Special Seminar: Convergent Nanomedicine—Towards a universal delivery platform

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Meeting ID: 962 4934 7313
Passcode: 005520

Despite unprecedented progress in the field of nanomedicine in recent decades as evident by an astonishing volume of publications and hundreds of ongoing clinical trials, the number of clinically approved nanoparticles (NPs) has yet to experience such rapid growth. A well-recognized problem with first-generation NPs, both in the clinic and in development, is their limited chemical scope—stemming from the required interdependencies between the system's components (eg cargo, carrier, solvent/surfactant system) and the associated redevelopment efforts upon swapping out a compartment (eg drug(s)).

We propose a convergent nanomedicine platform where all interdependencies are decoupled, enabling individual components to be systematically optimized with minimal impact on other constituents—akin to a convergent synthesis. This macromolecular prodrug technology is based on simple norbornene-based macromonomer (MM) building blocks, each bearing a payload with rationally and precisely programmed release kinetics; MM or mixtures thereof then undergo ring-opening metathesis polymerization (ROMP), resulting in the corresponding bottlebrush polymers. Translational aspects of this platform, including (i) scalability, (ii) delivery capability, (iii) therapeutic efficacy, and (iv) convergence, are hereby examined in the context of novel applications spanning the realm of iterative synthesis, molecular imaging, drug delivery, and theranostic reporter.

About the Speaker(s)

Hung V-T Nguyen
Co-Founder & Dir of Therapeutics Development, Window Therapeutics

Window Therapeutics is a startup that focuses off a drug delivery platform technology from the Johnson lab that was the topic of Hung's thesis. He received his associate's at Northern Virginia Community College, followed by his bachelor's at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Hung then moved to Boston to complete his graduate study at MIT as an NSF Fellow in Prof. Johnson's group. His thesis was, "Bottlebrush and Related Polymer Architectures for Biomedical Applications."

Trained as a synthetic and polymer chemist, Hung's research focuses on nanomaterials for drug delivery and molecular imaging applications. Leveraging chemistry-based approaches, he aims to develop delivery platforms with virtually universal substrate scope (ie, 'drug-agnostic'). In an effort to translate this promising technology from the benchtop to the bedside, Hung co-founded Window Therapeutics which has to date advanced the first lead candidate to be granted an Orphan Drug Designation.

Contact

For more information, contact Ashley Parker at ashley.l.parker@dartmouth.edu.