Category: Center for Nanotechnology in Drug Delivery
Kabanov Meets with President of Armenia
November 9, 2017Alexander “Sasha” Kabanov, Ph.D., met with the president of Armenia on Nov. 8 as part of a group of participants in the second All-Armenian Scientific Conference held in the capital city of Yerevan on November 5-8. The delegation consisted of prominent Armenian scientists and scholars from the United States, Russia, France, Ireland, Denmark and other countries. Kabanov is the Mescal S. Ferguson Distinguished Professor at the School and director of the School’s Center for Nanotechnology in Drug Delivery and co-director of the Carolina Institute for Nanomedicine. “It is crucial for young people to have the opportunity of communicating with individuals … Read more
Benhabbour Spin Off Earns UNC KickStart Award
July 13, 2017A company founded by Rahima Benhabbour, Ph.D., a faculty member at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy, has received a KickStart award from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to help create the first 3-D printed intravaginal ring designed to treat a women’s health condition. Benhabbour created AnelleO along with graduate student Rima Janusziewicz from the UNC Department of Chemistry. The company’s work is centered on 3D printed intravaginal rings that can be used as a platform for treating a wide range of women’s health conditions. “3D printing allows us to introduce geometric complexity to the rings that … Read more
Postdoc Elizabeth Wayne Reflects on TED Experience
June 28, 2017Elizabeth Wayne, Ph.D., a postdoctoral fellow studying how immune cells can be used to fight cancer, gave a TED talk on the main stage at TED 2017 in Vancouver, Canada. Wayne was announced as a TED fellow in January 2017. Wayne’s research focuses on targeted cancer therapy, attaching cancer-fighting genes to immune cells that are already being delivered by the body’s immune system to cancerous tumors. The idea, Wayne said, is to only treat the cancer itself rather than using treatments like chemotherapy, which cannot discriminate between damaging good cells and cancer cells. Of the weeklong event, the talk itself … Read more
Second Carolina Nanoformulation Workshop Shares Discoveries in Nanomedicine
April 18, 2017From March 13 to 17, scientists from industry and academia came together at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy to learn about and to get hands-on experience with the latest advances in nanomedicine at the second annual Carolina Nanoformulation Workshop. The workshop is a unique blend of classroom and hands-on training that stresses application and participation. It featured 18 speakers and two days of seminars for more than 30 participants followed by three days of practical experience in the laboratories of the School’s Center for Nanotechnology in Drug Delivery. The goal of the CNW is to provide safe and effective … Read more
UNC, Russian Scientists Create Biological Shield against Nerve Gas, Pesticides
April 3, 2017Scientists at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Moscow State University have created a new way to package and deliver a potent enzyme that can reverse — and even prevent — poisoning by pesticides and nerve gas, including VX and sarin, which has been used worldwide as a chemical weapon and estimated to be 26 times more deadly than cyanide. The team, led by UNC-Chapel Hill’s Alexander “Sasha” Kabanov, Ph.D., Dr.Sci., Mescal S. Ferguson Distinguished Professor, figured out how to wrap the powerful enzyme, called organophosphorus hydrolase, in a tiny nanoparticle, which could be taken before, during … Read more
Inaugural Carolina Nanoformulation Workshop Shares Discoveries in Nanomedicine
March 24, 2016From March 14 to 18, scientists from industry and academia converged on the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy to learn about and to get hands-on experience with the latest advances in nanomedicine at the inaugural Carolina Nanoformulation Workshop. The workshop is a unique blend of classroom and hands-on training that stresses application and participation. It featured nearly two dozen speakers and two days of seminars for 17 participants followed by three days of practical experience in the laboratories of the School’s Center for Nanotechnology in Drug Delivery. The goal of the CNW is to provide safe and effective solutions for … Read more
Batrakova Makes Cancer Drug 50 Times More Potent by Delivering It with Exosomes
January 14, 2016For the first time, scientists at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have packaged the cancer drug paclitaxel in exosomes — containers derived from a patient’s own immune system — to make it 50 times more potent against drug-resistant lung-cancer tumors. Elena Batrakova, Ph.D., and her colleagues at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy’s Center for Nanotechnology in Drug Delivery harvested tiny spheres called exosomes from macrophages, white blood cells that protect the body against infection. Exosomes carry chemical messages and are made of the same material as cell membranes. Diseases like cancer and AIDS propagate throughout the … Read more
NIH Funds CNDD Proposal to Develop New Stroke Treatment
October 7, 2015Researchers in the Center for Nanotechnology in Drug Delivery at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy have received a translational NIH grant worth $783,000 over two years to develop a way to deliver to the brain a protein capable of repairing some of the damage caused by stroke. The grant from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke will fund the CNDD’s efforts to design a new nanoparticle delivery system capable of transporting a protein called brain-derived neurotrophic factor to the brain and central nervous system. BDNF is a protein that supports the survival of and growth of certain … Read more
UNC Researchers Awarded $11.3 Million for Cancer Nanotechnology Research
September 14, 2015University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill researchers received an $11.3 million, five-year grant to conduct multiple studies exploring the use of nanoparticles to create cancer vaccines and improve cancer drug delivery and responses. The grant is the third in a series of awards that the university has received from the National Cancer Institute for cancer nanotechnology research. It will fund work by researchers with the Carolina Center of Cancer Nanotechnology Excellence, an NCI-funded collaboration between UNC-Chapel Hill and the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center. “UNC-Chapel Hill has emerged as a leader in nanotechnology in the last 10 years,” said … Read more
Smart Cells Teach Neurons Damaged by Parkinson’s to Heal Themselves
September 8, 2015As a potential treatment for Parkinson’s disease, scientists at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have created smarter immune cells that produce and deliver a neuron-healing protein to the brain while also teaching nerve cells to begin making the protein for themselves. Associate Professor Elena Batrakova, Ph.D., and her team at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy’s Center for Nanotechnology in Drug Delivery genetically modified white blood cells called macrophages to produce glial cell–derived neurotrophic factor, or GDNF, and deliver it to the brain. Glial cells provide support and protection for nerve cells throughout the brain and body, … Read more