Nathan Gianneschi, Evaston: Materials science based approaches to imaging, probing and drugging cells, and tissues

This is the second part of two lectures (12:00-15:00) hosted by Cristian C. Strassert. First part by David Barton, Evaston. Between the talks there will be time to network over snacks and drinks.

Talk by Nathan Gianneschi, Evaston: We describe a pioneering approach to address areas of clinical unmet need. “Materials Biology” seeks to harness concepts in materials science, polymer chemistry, polymer physics and engineering to perturb, probe, image and drug cellular systems. These approaches do not include drug carriers or drug eluting entities; rather, they are materials capable of directly engaging with their targets (e.g., proteins, carbohydrates, nucleic acids) to probe and/or alter biological processes. Indeed, their function is often intrinsically linked to multivalency and macromolecular architecture mimetics of natural materials and complex protein systems. Hence, Materials Biology has as its analogue, “Chemical Biology,” a field that utilizes chemical tools to probe and perturb cellular/biological systems. Materials Biology emerges where small molecule probes and traditional antibody/biomolecule-based approaches have failed or continue to struggle. This has opened up opportunities for rethinking how we tackle key problems and questions in biology using materials at the same length scale as nature’s building blocks. For example, the problem of probing and disrupting complex protein-protein interactions (PPIs) occurring at the 0.1 to 10 nm length scale, between intrinsically disordered proteins and/or within protein aggregates and phase separated states that are more material than molecular in nature and behavior. Such complex, disordered proteins and indeed biological barriers including the skin and the BBB combine to severely limit the utility of traditional, large nanoparticles, small molecules and current biologics. We describe the development of new therapeutic materials based platform technologies with translational potential in oncology and incurable neurodegenerative diseases. Furthermore, we will describe the use of advanced imaging methods to track and characterize complex soft materials of this class, including synthesis and phase transitions captured at the nanoscale by liquid phase transmission electron microscopy (LPTEM).

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