Wednesday, 26 March 2014

08:00

Registration


Nano Material Design

09:00

Steve RannardKeynote Presentation

Polydendrons: A New Nanoparticle Platform with Nanomedicine Opportunities
Steve Rannard, Group Leader & Vice Chair, University of Liverpool, United Kingdom

Although dendrimers have been available for nearly three decades, their application in nanomedicine has been limited by their cost and difficult syntheses. Here, we have combined the benefits of branched vinyl polymerisation with dendrimer chemistry to produce a new class of material - polydendrons. These materials are relatively simple to synthesise, form uniform nanoparticles and have shown potential benefits for oral administration.

10:00

Coffee and Networking in Exhibiton Hall

10:30

Nanomedicines to Improve the Therapeutic Index of Drugs in Modern Drug Design
Marianne Ashford, Principal Scientist, AstraZeneca, United Kingdom

This presentation will talk about context and challenges of therapeutic index in the pharmaceutical industry. The importance of therapeutic index improvement for Oncology and how nanoparticles can improve therapeutic index along with various case histories.

11:15

Why a Dendritic Approach to Nanomedicines?
Delphine Felder-Flesch, Researcher, Institut de Physique et Chimie des Materiaux de Strasbourg, France

The small size of the dendritic objects and the dendronized nanoparticles is mandatory as it allows envisaging a crossing of the capillary barrier, a urinary elimination and a favourable biodistribution: in vivo studies performed with dendritic 111In-radiopharmaceuticals on melanoma cancer and for the characterization of the sentinel lymph node, but also pre-clinical studies performed with dendronized iron oxides of various sizes and shapes will be discussed.

12:00

Self-assembled Porphyrin Nanomaterials for New Approaches to Medical Imaging and Therapy
Jonathan Lovell, Assistant Professor, University at Buffalo, United States of America

Porphyrins have played roles in the diagnosis and treatment of various diseases, in particular based on how these molecules interact with light. We will discuss some recent approaches to form novel nanostructured materials from porphyrins and related molecules. New self-assembled porphyrin nanomaterials have potentially enabling properties for disease diagnosis and therapy.

12:45

Lunch and Networking in Exhibition Hall

13:30

Poster Viewing Session

14:00

Tumour Regression after Intravenous Administration of Novel Tumour-targeted Nanomedicines
Christine Dufes, Senior Lecturer, University of Strathclyde, United Kingdom

Gene medicine to treat cancer is limited by the lack of tumour-selective delivery systems. The intravenous administration of a tumour-targeted dendriplex led to tumour disappearance of up to 90% of the tested tumours.

14:45

Biodegradable and Biocompatible Comb-Like Polymers for Biomedical Applications
Davide Moscatelli, Assistant Professor, Politecnico di Milano, Italy

In this work biocompatible and biodegradable NPs, with tunable hydrophobicity and biodegradation kinetics, were synthesized using novel Comb-Like Polymers (CLB). These NPs satisfy requirements for biological purpose for intravenous drug delivery in terms of size, between 20 and 300 nm, particle size distribution, biodegradability and biocompatibility. A number of obtained results for imaging (in vitro, ex vivo and in vivo), cell tracking (stem cells), cellular uptake studies, drug loading (antitumorals), toxicity studies, degradation and release studies are reported.

15:30

Magneto-plasmonic Nanoparticle Platform for Capture, Separation and Enumeration of Rare Cells
Konstantin Sokolov, Associate Professor, The University of Texas at Austin, United States of America

Detection of disseminated tumor cells or tumor biomarkers in human fluids such as blood, urine, and saliva can provide an accessible tool for cancer detection and therapy monitoring. Here we will discuss the opportunities afforded by hybrid magneto-plasmonic nanoparticles and photoacoustic imaging for the development of low cost, nearly real-time assays for capture, enumeration and characterization of rare cells.

16:15

Coffee and Networking in Exhibiton Hall


Aptamer Targeted Nanoparticles

16:30

ETP Nanomedicine and NANOMED2020: Towards a New Nanomedicine Horizon
Olivier Fontaine, European Technology Platform on Nanomedicine Representative, Nanobiotix, France

The European Technology Platform on Nanomedicine (ETPN) is striving for a sustainable, competitive and profitable nanomedicine sector in Europe. As the ideal entity for cross-fertilization and collaboration between all stakeholders, the ETPN has launched several significant initiatives and delivered concrete strategic recommendations for the successful translation of outstanding research into innovative products.

17:15

End of Day One

Thursday, 27 March 2014


Nanosuspensions

08:45

Improved Oral Delivery of Antiretroviral Drugs Via A Novel Synthesis of Solid Drug Nanoparticle Formulations
Andrew Owen, Professor, University of Liverpool, United Kingdom

Antiretroviral drugs exhibit poor and variable pharmacokinetics and there is a need for strict adherence to drug-resistance. Recent pre-clinical data for antiretroviral solid drug nanoparticles (SDNs) has shown putative benefits for oral bioavailability. Also, milling to form SDNs has resulted in intramuscular depot formulations with the potential for once monthly (or longer) dosing. This presentation will summarise these recent advances.


siRNA and Biologicals

09:30

Kattesh V. KattiKeynote Presentation

Green Nanotechnology in Cancer Therapy
Kattesh V. Katti, Director, Institute of Green Nanotechnology / Radiology / Cancer Nanotechnology Platform, University of Missouri, United States of America

This lecture describes the application of green nanotechnology in cancer therapy. Phytochemicals from Tea, various fruits and herbs possess powerful antioxidants with redox potentials capable of reducing gold and other metal salts to their corresponding nano particles.  Our results have established that the phytochemicals serve dual roles of reduction and subsequent capping around nanoparticles to afford optimum in vivo stability as well as cancer cell receptor targeting properties.  The tremendous practicality of creating major oncological advances using green nanotechnological tools and also the power of this approach to connect traditional Herbal Medicine with Nanomedicine will be discussed.

10:30

Coffee and Networking in Exhibiton Hall


Cell and Particle Tracking

11:00

Magnetic Nanoparticles in Surgical Oncology
Eric Mayes, CEO, Endomagnetics, United Kingdom

Dr Mayes will discuss Endomagnetics’ development of a nanoparticle-based system to increase access to the standard of care in cancer staging.  This system provides an alternative approach that avoids the requirement of radioisotopes for sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB), improving workflow and costs while increasing access for patients.

11:45

Nanoparticle-mediated siRNA Gene Silencing Against Brain Disorders
Mariarosa Mazza, Research Fellow, University of Manchester, United Kingdom

Peptide nanofibres (PNFs) find many applications as biomaterials for tissue engineering and have also been studied for neuronal regeneration and brain delivery. Positively charged amphiphilic peptides able to self-assemble into PNFs have been engineered. These fiber-shaped nanoscale constructs can be exploited for the development of effective siRNA therapeutics. In this talk, we will illustrate recent experimental evidence on how peptide nanofibres (PNFs) can be designed as tools for siRNA-mediated gene silencing of specific and surgically-targeted brain foci. PNFs constitute promising nanoscale tools for intervention strategies in various neurological disorders.

12:30

Lunch and Networking in Exhibition Hall

13:30

Poster Viewing Session

14:00

Conformational Changes Induced by Nanomaterials: Functional Implications
Rosana Simon-Vazquez, Post-doctoral Researcher, University of Vigo, Spain

Metal oxide nanoparticles induce conformational changes in some human plasma protein fractions determined by fluorescence and FTIR spectroscopy.

ZnO Nps induce a decrease in the thermal stability of albumin and fibrinogen, and interfere with the function of fibrinogen in the clotting assay.


Fundamental Study of Nanoparticle - Biological Interactions

14:45

Using In vitro and In vivo Models to Assess the Local and Systemic Responses to Nanomaterial Exposure
Vicki Stone, Director, Heriot-Watt University, United Kingdom

An overview of data describing translocation of nanomaterials following pulmonary, oral and intravenous delivery and then relating this to local and distal effects (e.g. in the liver) including oxidative stress and inflammatory gene changes.  There is an urgent need for better in vitro alternatives for nanomaterial toxicity testing.  This study compares local and distal responses with in vitro responses to nanomaterials and identifies scenarios that work, that don’t work and makes suggested changes for the future.

15:30

Close of Conference