Invited Paper BP+NS-SuA1
Using the Fabrication Technologies from the Microelectronics Industry to Address the Unmet Needs in Drug Delivery

Sunday, November 8, 2009, 3:00 pm, Room K

To translate promising molecular discoveries into benefits for patients, we are taking a pharmaco-engineering systems approach to develop the next generation of delivery systems with programmable multi-functional capability. Our laboratory has pioneered the development of a technique called PRINT (Particle Replication in Non-wetting Templates). PRINT is a remarkable top-down particle fabrication technique that has its roots in the fabrication techniques used in the microelectronics industry to make transistors. PRINT is a high resolution molding technique that allows the fabrication of precisely defined nano-particles with control over size, shape, deformability and surface chemistry. PRINT allows for the precise control over particle size (20 nm to >100 micron), particle shape (spheres, cylinders, discs, toroidal), particle composition (organic/inorganic, solid/porous), particle cargo (hydrophilic or hydrophobic therapeutics, biologicals, proteins, oligonucleotides, siRNA, imaging agents such as MR contrast agents, positron emitters), particle modulus (stiff, deformable) and particle surface properties (Avidin/biotin complexes, targeting peptides, antibodies, aptamers, cationic/anion charges, Stealth PEG chains).