Professor Antonios G. Kanaras (Institute for Life Sciences, Physics and Astronomy, University of Southampton)

Colloidal nanopaticles in sensing and drug release

Abstract

   Nanoparticulate systems are of great interest for applications in biomedicine due to the ability to design their properties. The ligand coating of the nanoparticles is critical for nanoparticle stability and function while the morphology and chemical composition of the nanoparticle core is important in defining optoelectronic, magnetic and other properties of the particles. In recent years, advances in nanoparticle chemical synthesis and surface functionalization rendered available a library of functional nanomaterials. The current step of evolution is the synthesis of nanomaterials that perform multitasking roles triggered by external stimuli. Such designs will be of high importance in biomedicine, especially for targeted and efficient drug delivery.

    In this presentation I will discuss recent progress in our group concerning the design of nanomaterials and their incorporation in biological systems to facilitate sensing, drug delivery and accurate manipulation. My talk will focus on a new class of nanoparticle dimers that can accommodate multiplexed synergistic actions of sensing and drug delivery in cells. These multitasking particle assemblies are able to selectively release anticancer drugs in response to specific messenger RNA signatures and selectively kill model cancerous cells as opposed to healthy cells.

Bio:

Professor Antonios Kanaras is part of the Institute for Life Sciences at the University of Southampton. Antonios Kanaras received his first degree in Chemistry (University of Crete) and a Master degree in Bioinorganic Chemistry (University of Ioannina). Then he obtained a PhD degree in Nanoscience from the Department of Chemistry, University of Liverpool. He was a postdoctoral scientist with Prof. Paul Alivisatos at the Department of Chemistry, University of California, Berkeley and Lawrence Berkeley Lab, working on the synthesis and energy applications of semiconductor nanoparticles.

Currently, he is Professor at the School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Southampton. Antonios' research is highly multidisciplinary working at the interface of physics, chemistry, biology and materials science. His published work has attained strong international recognition. Five of his recent articles were worldwide ranked at the top 10 Most Read Articles of the term by the Journals published and he published one article in the themed issue “Emerging investigators 2013” for ChemComm. His group was awarded the gold Mendel medal (2010) and the silver medal (2014) in Biological and Biomedical Sciences at the SETforBritain event for work related to the applications of advanced nanoparticles in Biological Sciences. In 2015 his group received the best paper award at the Photonics West international conference related to the programming of DNA-nanoparticle structures and in 2018 the best paper award at the same event for their work on advanced nanoparticle designs for sensing and drug delivery. He has obtained significant funding from a diverse range of sources (e.g. BBSRC, GCRF, Royal Society, DSTL, Leverhulme trust, Industry). He has given a large number of invited talks at international prestigious conferences. He is fellow of the Higher Education Academy, fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology and Fellow of the Institute of Physics.