Achievement

Randy Scherer, one of the first IGERT trainees to develop interdisciplinary research between Engineering and the Medical Center, focused his research on the development of nanoparticles for detection and treatment of breast cancer metastases. The co-PIs were Lynn Matrisian from the Cancer Biology Department and Todd Giorgio from the Biomedical Engineering Department. The project included development, analysis, and final testing in animal models with imaging response to therapy to nuerotoxicty studies after administration of therapy. A novel synthetic use of the oxime ligation to link a chemotherapeutic (Paclitaxol) to a drug delivery system was purified and analyzed using high performance liquid chromotography (HPLC) and matrix assissted laser desorption ionization (MALDI). Using a breast cancer cell line selected from the mouse mammary tumor virus polyoma middle mouse (MMTV-PYVT), mammary tumors in mice were subsequently treated with the newly developed drug delivery system.