Targeted Drug Delivery
An interesting aspect of our research is a project that seeks to characterize the way that a drug finds its target tissue. We are using small chemically modified peptides that contain a handle for linking a drug of interest to aid in its uptake. Modifications to the peptide include the attachment of certain lipid moieties that tend to localize to specific membranes, affording an avenue to provide selective delivery of the attached drug. This project allows students to gain experience in synthetic approaches, binding thermodynamics using isothermal titration calorimetry, efficiency of drug penetration via vesicle leakage assays, and structural characterization by using circular dichroism and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopies.
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