News
New project of Alessia Besford funded by DFG
The Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG)
will support Dr. Alessia Besford over the next three years through her project „Understanding the Biomolecular Corona Formation at the Nano-Bio Interface: Toward the Development of Immune Evasive Nanoparticles“.
Nanoparticles are promising candidates for application in controlled drug delivery. A key challenge in this pursuit is overcoming the rapid clearance of administered particles from the blood stream. Implementing stealth (avoidance of cellular recognition and internalization) and low-fouling (protein resistance) properties to the nanoparticles, is commonly and broadly achieved through functionalization with hydrophilic and charge-neutral polymers such as polyethylene glycol (PEG). In the proposed project, this traditional approach is challenged to “shield” nanoparticles from immune recognition using stealth and low-fouling technologies, and propose a shift towards exploiting immunomodulatory biomolecules on the nanomaterial structure that are capable of inhibiting immune-mediated destruction.
03.01.2021