Intrinsically Fluorescent Multicomponent Polymer-Drug Conjugates for Enhanced Drug Delivery and Tracking
Project ID: 2531ad1579
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Research Theme: Healthcare Technologies
UCL Lead department: School of Pharmacy
Lead Supervisor: Pratik Gurnani
Project Summary:
Why this research is important: Many drug candidates in the pharmaceutical development pipeline are poorly soluble or do not overcome the required biological barriers and hence remain ‘undeliverable’. A route to solve this challenge is by formulating the drug into nanoparticles, which improves their solubility and facilitates transportation around the body after injection or across the cellular membrane. However, tracking the drug release profile and disassembly from these nanoparticles remains highly challenging.
We have recently developed a new approach to produce biocompatible polymers using the Passerini multicomponent reaction. We have identified that when assembled into nanoparticles these ‘Passerini polymers’ exhibited intrinsic fluorescence.
This project therefore aims to develop a new generation of modular, intrinsically fluorescent polymers via the Passerini reaction, optimized for targeted delivery of active pharmaceutical agents. The polymers’ built-in fluorescence addresses a key challenge in drug delivery: reliably tracking drug release and nanoparticle disassembly without the uncertainty of external dyes. By enhancing tracking and solubility for more efficient transport in the body, this polymeric platform shows great potential for delivering drugs that were previously too difficult to deliver or poorly understood.
What you will be doing: In this project you will learn skills from synthetic chemistry, polymer science, drug delivery and fluorescence characterisation.
Who you will be working with: You will join the groups of Dr Pratik Gurnani (Pharmacy, Polymer biomaterials), Dr Julia Rho (Chemistry, Polymer Chemistry) and Dr Stephen Patrick (Biomedical Imaging).
Who we are looking for: We are looking for a motivated candidate with a background in chemistry, medicinal chemistry, or pharmacy who is interested in combining synthesis with pharmaceutics research. Candidates with a biology or biomedicine background will also be considered.