This proposal seeks to develop an interdisciplinary Nanomedicine Center at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. We have assembled a team of scientists with specific expertise in nanomedicine, drug delivery, therapeutics and diagnostics. These will now be joined by biochemists, pharmacologists, immunologists and neuroscientists. All will work, with singular focus, to develop the means to best use devices of nanoscale size to improve outcomes for cancer, neurodegenerative and cardiovascular diseases. Such approaches will deliver drugs to focal areas of central nervous system disease or directly to tumors. Parallel studies seek nanotechnologies to improve diagnostic measures and disease monitoring. The anticipated outcome is to maximize clinical benefits and limit untoward side effects. Nanotechnology is amongst the most rapidly developing approaches available towards for drug and gene delivery. Indeed, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) have identified the need in developing the field of Nanomedicine as an integral component of its strategic plan. The challenges in realizing these goals require the formation of multidisciplinary research centers that include broad expertise in material, pharmaceutical and biological sciences driven by innovative research. This is the foundation for the Nebraska Center for Nanomedicine (NCN). The long-term goals are to build upon and integrate already strong areas of research in cancer biology, neurodegenerative disorders, molecular imaging (magnetic resonance and single photon emission computed tomography) with material and pharmaceutical sciences (nanomaterials, polymers, drug delivery, and gene delivery). The envisioned cross-disciplinary expertise could be joined between traditional biomedical research and material sciences through the NCN.
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