This award from the Solid State Chemistry program in the Division of Materials Research to University of California San Diego is to develop a chemically modified matrix of nanocrystalline porous Si or SiO2 to increase the high surface area and free volume at the nanoscale. Chemistries to cap the pores with noble metals, polymers, proteins, and silica derived from silanols will be studied, with the ultimate goal of developing a matrix for the slow release of drug under appropriate physiological conditions. The high surface area and free volume in porous Si films would allow the loading of a large amount of drug, and different drugs will be incorporated into these microscopic particles of porous Si. Delivering drugs to specified locations in the body at specified rates is an important aspect of effective medical therapies. The proposed work will encompass new methods of trapping molecules into porous nanostructures, and new methods of monitoring the porous nanostructures using the optical properties of the materials. In particular, one-dimensional photonic crystals will be prepared whose spectral signatures can report on the amount or type of drug contained within. This proposal, which was received at NSF in response to Materials World Network solicitation, is for collaborative efforts with European partners Drs. Bernard Coq, Jean-Marie Devoisselle and Frederique Cunin of the CNRS Laboratoire de Materiaux Catalytiques et Catalyse en Chimie Organique in Montpellier, France. The Montpellier lab has played a major role in the development and commercialization of liposome-based drug delivery materials in France. This collaborative program will bring together the drug delivery expertise of the Montpellier group with the nanomaterials design expertise of the UC San Diego research group.
The work will provide a highly interdisciplinary education to undergraduate, graduate, and post-doctoral students in the fields of nanotechnology, biotechnology, and pharmaceutical chemistry. Nanomaterials would be developed with this award with more sophisticated functions that could be used to more effectively deliver drugs to patients. The European collaborators of this project at the Montpellier laboratory had played a major role in the development and commercialization of liposome-based drug delivery materials in France. With this award, students will be involved in short-term and long-term exchanges and studies between the San Diego and the Montpellier labs.
