UNC, MIT labs make technology leap

A joint UNC-MIT research discovery might bring progress in cancer treatment.

Joseph DeSimone, a distinguished professor of chemistry at UNC, is directing a collaborative nanotechnology project with MIT professor Paula Hammond’s chemical engineering lab.

Research published July 1 showed that by combining two novel technologies, one from each university, scientists were able to create highly customizable nanoparticles.

Hammond said the multifunctional particles could be used for targeted delivery for cancer on a large-scale manufacturing process.

“Thus making these precision nanoparticle systems that are commercially translatable,” she said.
Liquidia Technologies, a Research Triangle Park firm, has raised $60 million to fund the project, DeSimone said.

Stephen Morton, a graduate student in Hammond’s lab and lead author of the research article, said the technology is important because it allows for customization of particle production. He said the research is relevant to personalized medicine.

DeSimone said an influenza vaccine based on the technology was given to more than 100 elderly adults in Florida last year in a pilot test.

He said the technology allows scientists to create billions or trillions of nanoparticles that are all uniform in size and shape.

“It’s basically a molding technology that’s done in a roll-to-roll manner, which is a film-based process common to the old Polaroid or Kodak industry,” DeSimone said.

Jason Deng, a postdoctoral researcher in Hammond’s lab, said the technology allows for control of the size and geometry of the nanoparticles produced.

The particles created range from a size of 100 nanometers to 100 microns, said Kevin Chu, a graduate student in DeSimone’s lab. He said the particles are created using a template.

“This allows us to make molds or films that look like an ice cube tray on a nanoscale,” DeSimone said.

Deng said the technology is also used for harvesting particles, and that developing nanomedicine is a central goal in the Hammond lab.

He said there is a challenge in bringing nanomedicine to the market, and the ability to control the size and shape of particles will be helpful in bringing the new technology to clinical trials.

The technology is being commercialized by Liquidia Technologies, DeSimone said. He said a product is currently in the clinic for an influenza vaccine.

DeSimone said the research — whose academic lab portion is partially funded by the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation — can also be applied to ophthalmology, oncology and asthma.

Chu said MIT’s approach works well with UNC’s because after particles are produced at UNC, the lab at MIT coats the particles using a layer approach.

DeSimone said the project began because an undergraduate student at N.C. State University, who attended MIT for graduate school, was interested in bringing together the work of Hammond’s lab at MIT and DeSimone’s lab at UNC.

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