About the Project
Cancer nanotechnology is a branch of nanotechnology concerned with the design and application of nanoparticles for tumour imaging or drug delivery and development of nanotechnology approaches to the diagnosis and treatment of cancer, including nanoparticle-based theranostics. Gold nanoparticles are highly utilised for biomedical applications (as promising drug carriers, contrast agents, tuneable multimodal nanosensors, radiosensitizers etc.)[1] They can be designed to achieve programmable properties, which represents a winning tool for improvement of radiotherapy outcomes owing to specific tumour dose-enhancement in combination with X-ray therapy.
This multidisciplinary project aims to rationally design gold nanoparticle libraries, including anisotropic gold nano-carriers with tailored surface functionalities for a variety of new anti-cancer nanotechnology applications and develop new studies of the role of key parameters on the radiation dose enhancement.
Collaborations with the Centre for Advanced and Interdisciplinary Radiation Research (CAIRR) at Queen’s University Belfast are planned, where the student will receive additional training for radiochemical applications of nanomaterials produced.
Dr Krpetic is an expert in nanoparticle synthesis, functionalisation, characterisation and cancer nanotechnology applications [2-4] and formulation of novel analytical approaches to high-resolution nanoparticle characterisation.[5,6]
For more information on research within the School of Environment and Life Sciences please visit the School research website http://www.salford.ac.uk/environment-life-sciences/research.
References:
[1] Ž. Krpetić, S. Anguissola, D. Garry, P. M. Kelly, K. A. Dawson. ‘Nanomaterials: Impact on cells and cell organelles’ In: Nanomaterial: Impact on Cell Biology and Medicine. David Capco and Yongsheng Chen Eds. Springer, 2014
[2] M. A. C. Potenza, Ž. Krpetić, T. Sanvito, Q. Cai, M. Monopoli, J. M. de Araújo, C. Cella, L. Boselli, V. Castagnola, P. Milani, K. A. Dawson. Detecting the Shape of Anisotropic Gold nanoparticles in Dispersion With Single Patricle Extinction and Scattering. Nanoscale, 2017, 9, 2278-2784.
[3] Ž. Krpetic, S. Saleemi, I. A. Prior, V. Sée, R. Qureshi, M. Brust. Negotiation of Intracellular Membrane Barriers by TAT-Modified Gold Nanoparticles. ACS Nano, 2011, 5, 5195–5201.
[4] Ž. Krpetic, I. Singh, W. Su, L. Guerrini, K. Faulds, G. A. Burley, D. Graham. Directed Assembly of DNA-Functionalized Gold Nanoparticles Using Pyrrole-Imidazole Polyamides. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2012, 143, 8356-8359.
[5] P. M. Kelly, C. Åberg, E. Polo, A. O’Connell, J. Cookman, J. Fallon, Ž. Krpetic,* K. A. Dawson*. Biological Identity and Recognition of Nanoparticles: Epitope Mapping of the Biomolecular Corona. Nature Nanotechnology, 2015, 10, 472-479.
[6] Ž. Krpetic, A. M. Davidson, M. Volk, R. Lévy, M. Brust, D. L. Cooper. High-Resolution Sizing of Monolayer-Protected Gold Clusters by Differential Centrifugal Sedimentation ACS Nano, 2013, 7, 8881–8890.