Cancer

We are researching tumor-specific targets for nanotherapeutics

The Nanovaccine Institute and its members are working collaboratively on projects to combat cancers including pancreatic cancer, head and neck cancers, breast cancer, brain cancer, prostate cancer and pediatric cancers.

Nanovaccine Institute researchers are advancing diagnostic, therapeutic, and immunotherapeutic tools against multiple cancers. The diagnostic research is based on a fundamental understanding of how nanomaterials interact with light and is used to design novel biomarkers and perform metabolic imaging and immunoimaging. Nanovaccine Institute researchers are collaborating to develop novel gene therapies against multiple cancers, including pancreatic cancer, which will lead to combinatorial therapies that are superior in terms of therapeutic efficacy of current treatments. In addition, Nanovaccine Institute researchers are developing novel immunotherapies based on nanovaccines to treat pancreatic cancer. These nano-based immunotherapies induce durable antigen-specific T cell immunity which can overcome the immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment. All of these nano-based therapeutics and immunotherapies are being tested in multiple relevant animal models, including humanized rodents.

Partnerships between cancer biologists, immunologists, chemists, biomedical, chemical, and materials engineers, pharmaceutical scientists, and physicians are fueling these advances.