Subventions et des contributions :

Subvention ou bourse octroyée s'appliquant à plus d'un exercice financier (2017-2018 à 2018-2019).

Graphene-based nanomaterials have expanded their applications to biomedicine, ranging from biosensors andx000D
imaging to scaffolds for tissue engineering to drug and gene delivery in cancer treatment. In particular,x000D
graphene oxide derivatives (GODs) are the main focus of the intensive research in the field of drug/genex000D
delivery, due to their oxygen functionalities that make them soluble in aqueous biological media. GODs canx000D
interact with biological molecules through both covalent and non-covalent bonds that opens up morex000D
opportunities in for targeted drug delivery. Specific targeting, efficient drug release and intracellular traffickingx000D
are the most important requirements in a drug delivery system. The GOD delivery performance has yet to bex000D
optimized to meet all these requirements. On the other hand, peptides are an important class of biomaterialx000D
building blocks, providing unique bio-functions such as targeting, antimicrobial activity, cell penetration, andx000D
immunotherapy. Here, we propose to explore the possibility of peptide functionalized GODs in drug and genex000D
delivery, in terms of their functional versatility and tunability. The team, consisting of University of Waterloox000D
researchers and their industry partner, Zerocor, will first try to understand the interaction between peptide andx000D
GOD, and the competition among different peptides and therapeutic drugs on GOD binding. This part of studyx000D
will provide information on how to construct GOD-based drug carriers that functionalize with different typesx000D
of peptides. The physicochemical properties of the GOD-peptide/drug complexes will be investigated andx000D
characterized using a variety of techniques, to reveal cellular uptake mechanisms and cell membranex000D
interactions. The team will subsequently study the functions of a selected number of drug-peptide-GODx000D
complexes, in terms of tumor cell targeting, lysosomal escape and triggered drug/cargo release. Optimizedx000D
formulations of GOD/peptide/drug complexes will be tested for their stability in physiologically relevantx000D
solutions by means of size distribution, assembly morphology, drug loading and efficacy. Eventually, thex000D
multifunctional GOD-based drug delivery system is expected to be obtained for future in vivo tests.