This award will support a two-year cooperative research project involving Professor Raphael M. Ottenbrite, Department of Chemistry, Virginia Commonwealth University; Professor Michael Sobel, Medical College of Virginia; and Professor Junzo Sunamoto, Department of Polymer Chemistry, Kyoto University, Japan. Their past efforts have produced a unique approach to delivering antitumor polyanionic polymers by using polysaccharide-coated liposomes as masking agents. Their research is a collaborative, interdisciplinary effort intended to continue to develop new and better polymers which will provide less toxic and more active agents, to develop new and better liposomes and carriers to improve the biological success currently achieved, and finally to evaluate this combination immunostimulator and delivery system with in- vitro and possibly in-vivo experiments. Professor Ottenbrite is well known for his work in the area of polymer synthesis. Professor Sobel is a biochemist with expertise in cell membranes and their role in the assimilation of materials into the cell. Professor Sunamoto is an expert in the area of liposomal encapsulation. Their joint efforts should result in the development of new knowledge which could ultimately lead to viable new methods of immunotherapy.
