The Nanotechnology Center at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center was established to bridge the gap between basic scientists and clinicians, fostering strong, sustainable collaborations between chemists, biologists, materials scientists, pharmacologists, oncologists, and radiologists. The Nanotechnology Center exploits Memorial Sloan-Kettering’s significant preclinical and clinical resources to enable efficient and rapid transfer of nanotechnology applications for cancer treatment and imaging from bench to bedside.
Some examples of areas of interest at the Nanotechnology Center include:
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Imaging
Use of nanoparticles in MRI, nuclear, Raman, and optical agents to provide images of tumor sites of exceptional quality and specificity or to monitor drug distribution and metabolism
- Ex-vivo Diagnostics
Detection of cells, genes, or proteins at nanoscale levels in order to profile therapeutic target biomarkers on biopsy material, predict outcome, and personalize therapeutic interventions
- Therapeutics
Development of new nanoscale anticancer medicines and novel drug-delivery systems
- Surgery
Use of injectable luminescent nanoparticles (such as quantum dots) or other agents to guide surgery, and use of hydrogels to stop bleeding while maintaining a clear view of the operating field
- Biological Drug Delivery
Delivery of peptide nucleic acid (PNA), small interfering ribonucleic acid (siRNA), and transfection vectors in vitro and in vivo
- Theranostics
Combination of imaging and therapeutics on a single carrier platform
In addition, the Nanotechnology Center is interested in how nanotechnology research can provide solutions to problems in cancer biology, diagnosis, prognosis, and therapy that are not readily achievable with traditional molecular biological, biochemical, or immunological methods.
This includes research addressing the following areas:
- Multifunctionality and Multiplexing
Researchers have shown that a single nanoscale structure can carry both a cytotoxic agent (such as a radioisotope or drug) and an imaging agent. Such tools enable investigators to deliver therapies while also monitoring their location, allowing new opportunities for dose modeling and prediction of effects and toxicity during drug development. Multiple drugs can also be combined for multiple effects, for example, targeting vessels and tumor cells in a timed manner. Alternatively, particles that emit different wavelengths can be combined for multiplex in-vitro or in-vivo diagnostics.1
- Multivalency
Monoclonal antibodies can hold only three to five ligands each, but hundreds of ligands can be added to carbon nanotubes. In the area of diagnostics, this may mean that hundreds of sensors can be applied to very small sample sizes, such as a few 100 uL of blood, for rapid and sensitive assays. This allows for amplification of signal and of therapeutic potential, in some cases up to 100 fold.2
- New and Potentially Undiscovered Properties of Materials
Sloan-Kettering Institute investigators have found that large carbon nanotubes can be cleared through the kidney when they are aligned with flow in the vasculature and that single-wall nanotubes can serve as vehicles to deliver vaccines into dendritic cells.3,4
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Control of Size, Shape, Change, Surface Properties, and Modulus
Because nanomaterials are synthetic molecules, desirable properties can be engineered into them to change their clearance (the amount of time it takes for them to be cleared from the body) and targeting features to suit the individual tumor type.5
References
1Ruggiero A, Villa CH, Holland JP, Sprinkle SR, May C, Lewis JS, Scheinberg DA, McDevitt MR. Imaging and treating tumor vasculature with targeted radiolabeled carbon nanotubes. Int J Nanomedicine. 2010 Oct 5;5:783-802. [PubMed Abstract]
2McDevitt MR, Chattopadhyay D, Kappel BJ, Jaggi JS, Schiffman SR, Antczak C, Njardarson JT, Brentjens R, Scheinberg DA. Tumor targeting with antibody-functionalized, radiolabeled carbon nanotubes. J Nucl Med. 2007 Jul;48(7):1180-9. [PubMed Abstract]
3Ruggiero A, Villa CH, Bander E, Rey DA, Bergkvist M, Batt CA, Manova-Todorova K, Deen WM, Scheinberg DA, McDevitt MR. Paradoxical glomerular filtration of carbon nanotubes. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2010 Jul 6;107(27):12369-74. Epub 2010 Jun 21.[PubMed Abstract]
4Villa CH, Dao T, Ahearn I, Fehrenbacher N, Casey E, Rey DA, Korontsvit T, Zakhaleva V, Batt CA, Philips MR, Scheinberg DA. Single-walled carbon nanotubes deliver peptide antigen into dendritic cells and enhance IgG responses to tumor-associated antigens. ACS Nano. 2011 Jul 26;5(7):5300-11. Epub 2011 Jun 23.[PubMed Abstract]
5Benezra M, Penate-Medina O, Zanzonico PB, Schaer D, Ow H, Burns A, DeStanchina E, Longo V, Herz E, Iyer S, Wolchok J, Larson SM, Wiesner U, Bradbury MS. Multimodal silica nanoparticles are effective cancer-targeted probes in a model of human melanoma. J Clin Invest. 2011 Jul 1;121(7):2768-80. doi: 10.1172/JCI45600. Epub 2011 Jun 13. [PubMed Abstract]
