Submission Date

7-19-2019

Document Type

Paper- Restricted to Campus Access

Department

Biochemistry & Molecular Biology

Faculty Mentor

Samantha Wilner

Student Contributor

Emily Franz

Comments

Presented during the 21st Annual Summer Fellows Symposium, July 19, 2019 at Ursinus College.

Project Description

The delivery of nanoparticles—microscopic cargo that can play an important role in healthcare—is a straightforward concept with a highly complex execution. Many common drugs are hydrophobic and unable to travel through the bloodstream, so a method of transporting them within the body must be engineered. Micelles, spherical aggregates of lipid monomers which have a hydrophilic shell and a hydrophobic core, are well-suited to the task of nanodelivery. However, under normal circumstances micelles are only marginally stable, so must be modified in order to be useful for delivery. The addition of nucleic acids to micelles has the potential to increase micelle stability as well as open the door for a triggered drug release system. During this project, we synthesized lipid-nucleic acid conjugates as well as investigated the stability of unmodified micelles in the first steps towards developing stabilized micelles.

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