"Engineering Platforms for Exploring Cellular and Molecular Processes" Seminar Series

Cancer represents a significant health problem incurring tremendous cost in treatment, diagnosis and loss to the economy.  Nanotechnology holds great promise for the treatment of diseases including many forms of cancer.  There have been advances in formulation of gold nanoparticles with strong surface plasmon resonance which lead to absorption or scattering of light energy.  These particles have been used to demonstrate tumor ablation when coupled with near infrared light sources. The tunability of these nanoparticles makes them ideal for a variety of photothermal applications in medicine.  In addition, the ability to conjugate molecules to the surface of the gold has allow the development of  immuno-assays and targeting schemes to demonstrate specificity for certain types of tumor cells, including prostate and breast cancer.

This seminar will discuss some of the work done to develop gold nanoshells into a therapeutic agent. Nanoshells are a class of optically active nanoparticles with tunable optical properties and consist of non-conducting silica core and ultrathin gold shell.  Nanoshells offer the ability to manipulate both the resonant wavelength and the relative scattering and absorption efficiencies through the size and composition of each layer of the nanoshell structure. These particles can be designed and produced with high absorbing efficiencies in the near infrared (NIR) wavelength region (~650-950nm), a region noted for high transmissivity and low absorption by native chromophores in tissue. I will discuss my previous work which focused on 1) simultaneous imaging and therapy with a single particle 2) improving cancer therapy by targeting gold coated silica nanoshells to prostate cancer using antibodies and other smaller ligands, and 3) development of smaller more highly absorbing gold coated gold-sulfide nanoparticle for advanced cancer therapy.  Finally, I will address some of the issues we are exploring to expand this technology in research here at the University of Louisville, including scaleup and novel coatings to develop a nanotherapeutic platform for drug delivery and imaging and our current work on treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).

Dr. André Gobin has been an Assistant Professor in the Department of Bioengineering at the University of Louisville since October 2007. He has a B.S from Cornell University and completed his PhD at Rice University where he worked on the application of near infrared absorbing nanoparticles for use as a cancer therapeutic agent. Dr. Gobin has 10 years industrial experience including commercial development and technical services.  At the University of Louisville he has been building his research program in the area of multifunctional nanotherapeutic agents using gold nanoparticles.  He has successfully secured external funding from the Wallace H. Coulter Foundation, receiving the prestigious Early Career Award for Translational Research in Biomedical Engineering in 2008.  Dr. Gobin is the coordinator for the Senior Capstone Design course and teaches a course on Molecular Bioengineering in the Bioengineering Department at the University of Louisville.