Nanoparticles for Delivery to and Treatment of Neurological Disorders
Forrest Kievit, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Biological Systems Engineering, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Friday, September 20th at 11:45 am
In-Person in SMBB 2650
Forrest Kievit earned his Ph.D. in the Materials Science and Engineering Department at the University of Washington, followed by postdoctoral and research faculty positions in the Department of Neurological Surgery and Center for Integrative Brain Research at Seattle Children’s Research Institute prior to joining the Biological Systems Engineering Department at the University of Nebraska as an Assistant Professor in 2016. His group’s research focuses on engineering nanoparticle-based strategies for solving current problems in neuroscience with an overall career goal of eventually translating a nanomedicine into clinical use. To this end, he and his group just spun out their first company, NanoPhylax, in hopes of funding the translation of some of their antioxidant materials into clinical trials.
Website: kievit.unl.edu
Abstract: Brain delivery of therapeutics is significantly hindered by the blood-brain barrier (BBB) that prevents the passive accumulation of materials in the brain. Nanoparticle (NP) delivery systems have been shown to improve brain accumulation and retention when there is severe disruption of the BBB such as in traumatic brain injury or brain cancer; however, delivery is limited as the BBB refortifies. The goal of the Kievit Lab is to use nanoparticles both as a tool to better understand how to improve delivery into the brain as well as a delivery vehicle to promote improved therapeutic target engagement. To do this, we draw upon our expertise in materials science and imaging to develop nanomaterials and imaging methods that can be used to better monitor delivery and correlate with outcome. This talk focuses on two of our recent projects utilizing antioxidant nanoparticles to improve recovery from a traumatic brain injury, and improving delivery specifically into diseased brain regions through active targeting of ectopic tight junction protein expression at the BBB.